WOianuiP 


-£• 


POVERTY  AND  RICHES 


— 


poverty  and  Riches 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAL  REGIME 


BY 

SCOTT  NEARING,  PH.D. 

Dean  of  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
Toledcf  University. 

Author  of  "Wages  in  the  United  States,"  "Financing 
the  Wage  Earner's  Family,"  "Income,"  "Re- 
ducing the  Cost  of  Living,"  "Anthracite: 
an  Instance  of  Natural  Resource 
Monopoly,"  etc. 


With  Photographs  and  Pictures  by  Charles  F.  Weller, 

Lewis  W.  Hine,  George  Frederick  Watts, 

W.  Balfour  Ker  and  other  artists. 


THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


/V37 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
L.  T.  MYERS 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 9 

The  Ordeal  of  Fire,  9— Intellectual  Individualism,  12— The 
Industrial  Regime  in  England  and  the  United  States,  13 — 
Laissez-Faire,  15 — Legislative  Interference,  21 — Laissez- 
Faire  Justified,  23— The  Prophets  of  Better  Things,  25 — 
The  Deluge,  32 — Individualism  versus  Libertj,  41 — The 
Message  of  Social  Science,  42. 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 45 

The  Tool  Maker,  45— The  Tool  and  the  Machine,  46— The 
Possibilities  of  the  Machine,  49 — The  Fruits  of  the  Machine, 
51 — The  Industrial  Revolution,  56 — The  Growth  of  Riches, 
62 — Man — The  Machine  Tender,  64 — Caught  in  the  Levers 
and  Cogs,  70 — Worker  and  Product,  78— Spiritual  Values, 
81— The  Lilies  of  the  Field,  84— The  Machine  and  the 
Future,  86. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  LABORER  AND  His  HIRE 89 

Material  and  Spiritual  Values,  89 — The  Greatest  Number, 
90— What  are  Men  Worth?  91— Does  the  Laborer  Get 
Enough,  95 — The  Measure  of  Wage  Adequacy,  97 — What 
is  the  American  Wage?  101 — The  Phases  of  Wage  Adequacy, 
106 — Wages  and  Physical  Efficiency,  106 — The  American 
Wage  as  a  Business  Proposition,  114 — The  Social  Impli- 
cations of  the  American  Wage,  119 — The  Penalty  of  Labor, 
122. 

(5) 


6  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III 

PAGE 

INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 124 

The  Call  for  Leadership,  124 — The  Qualities  of  Leadership, 
127 — America's  Leadership  Heritage,  129 — The  Duties  of 
Leadership,  132 — The  Opportunities  for  Leadership,  134 — 
The  Position  of  the  Industrial  Leader,  139 — The  Class  Con- 
sciousness of  the  Leaders,  140 — The  Men  Half  Way  Up, 
143 — The  Methods  of  Securing  Leaders,  146 — The  Training 
of  Industry,  148 — Leadership  through  Education,  149 — 
The  Denial  of  Opportunity,  155. 

CHAPTER  IV 

POVERTY 161 

Progress  and  Poverty,  161— What  is  Poverty?  163— The 
Trail  of  Poverty,  165— The  Burden  of  Poverty,  172— Crime 
Begins  in  Poverty,  175 — Poverty  and  Disease,  177 — "Let 
Him  be  Poor,"  183 — Dives  and  Lazarus,  184 — Why  are 
They  Poor?  187— The  Challenge  of  Poverty,  194— We 
Must  Get  Off  Their  Backs,  197. 

CHAPTER  V 

RICHES 199 

The  Heaven  of  the  Rich,  199— The  Wealth  Machine,  201— 
Wealth  and  the  Wealthy,  207— Riches  and  Self-Respect, 
209— The  Pauperizing  Power  of  Riches,  210— The  Isolation 
of  Riches,  211 — Spending  as  Philanthropy,  215 — We  Can- 
not Serve  Mammon,  219 — What  is  Riches?  222 — The  Maxi- 
mum Inequality,  224. 

CHAPTER  VI 
INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 227 

The  Impatience  for  Constructive  Work,  227 — The  Ideals 
of  Democracy,  228 — Democratic  Ideals  and  the  Industrial 
Regime,  230 — Equality  of  Opportunity,  232 — Liberty  as 
Opportunity,  238 — Opportunity  and  Pursuit  of  Happiness, 
242 — Workers  and  Eaters,  245^— A  People's  Government, 
247 — Taxation  and  Representation,  252 — The  Man  above 
the  Dollar,  253. 

INDEX . .  .  257 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


SUMPTUOUS  STABLES  AND  HOMELESS  HUMANS  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

CHILD  LABORERS  OF  THE  COAL  MINES 14 

CHILDREN  OF  THE-  SLUMS  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY  ....     37 

MAMMON '. 44 

WOMEN  WORKERS  IN  A  LYNN  SHOE  FACTORY 69 

WORKROOMS  OF  THE  POOR  AND  THE  RICH 76 

CHATEAU  AND  TENEMENT 101 

THE  COAL  FAMINE 108 

KING  CANUTE 133 

THE  HAND  OF  FATE 140 

Two  WAYS  OF  GETTING  FED 165 

A  CONTRAST  IN  BEDROOMS 172 

THE  VAMPIRE 197 

DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  DINING  ROOMS 204 

DESTITUTION  AND  LUXURY..  .  229 


INTRODUCTION 
THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

1.     The  Ordeal  of  Fire 

"CWERY  theory  of  human  conduct  must  withstand 
*-*  the  fires  of  experience.  Otherwise  it  is  a  use- 
less theory.  The  philosophies  of  nations  and  of 
individuals  are  constantly  reshaped  hi  the  light  of 
events.  At  some  tunes  the  process  is  gradual;  at 
other  tunes  great  crises  menace,  and  the  most 
momentous  consequences  hang  upon  the  decision. 

The  war  that  swept  over  Europe  in  the  summer  of 
1914  soon  resolved  itself  into  a  struggle  between  the 
English  and  the  Germans.  Two  types  of  culture  were 
brought  into  conflict.  The  names  most  often  applied 
to  these  types  are  "individualism"  and  "socialism." 

Unfortunately  the  words  are  not  accurately 
descriptive,  nor  are  they  mutually  exclusive.  Eng- 
land is  to  a  degree  socialistic,  while  individualism 
finds  a  place  in  every  phase  of  German  life.  Further- 
more, the  English  variety  of  individualism  is  almost 
as  far  from  Spencerian  individualism  as  the  German 
variety  of  socialism  is  far  from  Marxian  Socialism. 
At  the  same  time  the  words  convey  an  idea  that  is 
firmly  fixed  in  the  public  mind.  The  United  States, 
as  the  offspring  of  England,  is  committed,  by  heredity 

(9) 


10  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

and  by  training,  to  espouse  the  cause  of  "individual- 
ism" and  "freedom"  wherever  they  appear. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  in  sympathy 
with  the  Allies  for  many  reasons,  and  among  them  is 
the  strongly  marked  feeling  that  the  United  States 
is  a  lineal  descendant  of  individualized,  democratic 
England. 

At  that  point  several  questions  present  them- 
selves. What  is  individualism?  Is  it  right  or  true? 
Will  it  work? 

Spencerian  individualism  regarded  the  human 
being  as  the  basic  unit  of  society.  Intellectually, 
that  premise  is  sound.  Biologically  and  socially,  it 
is  unsound.  The  human  being  uses  his  mind  as  an 
individual,  but  he  cannot  reproduce  himself  without 
a  mate.  The  biologic  unit  is  therefore  a  male  and 
female.  Speaking  hi  terms  of  race  perpetuation, 
"individualism"  must  refer  to  the  unit  of  a  man 
and  a  woman. 

Socially,  the  unit  is  the  family.  Society  depends 
for  its  future  upon  the  care  given  by  a  man  and  a 
woman  to  their  offspring.  The  family,  hi  its  home, 
thus  becomes  the  center  of  social  life;  hence  individ- 
ualism, in  social  terms,  relates  to  a  family. 

The  idea  of  the  individual  unit  may  be  carried 
further  into  social  life — to  the  community,  town, 
city — that  has  an  individuality  of  its  own,  quite  as 
clearly  marked  as  the  individuality  of  a  human 
being.  The  same  idea  may  be  carried  into  industrial 
life,  where  railroads,  telephone  systems,  factories, 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  11 

mines,  and  stores,  employing  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  persons,  are  operated  as  units.  In  the 
industrial  city,  the  railroad  organization  or  the 
factory  organization,  the  individual  human  being  is 
helpless  and  useless  unless  he  is  willing  to  co-operate 
actively  hi  making  the  work  of  the  whole  group  a 
success.  No  individual  can  manage  a  city,  a  railroad 
or  a  factory  unless  there  are  others  who  will  sub- 
ordinate themselves  to  his  direction.  Speaking  in 
terms  of  modern  community  or  of  modern  industrial 
life,  the  individual  human  being  does  not  count. 
The  thing  that  does  count  is  the  group,  working  in 
intelligent  harmony.  The  individualism  of  the 
Industrial  Regime  is  an  individualism  of  large  units 
of  co-operating  workers. 

The  same  thought  may  be  amplified  in  the  case  of 
the  human  body.  The  body  is  an  individual,  com- 
posed of  numerous  individual  organs,  which,  in  turn, 
are  composed  of  numerous  individual  cells.  The 
hand  is  a  unit;  each  finger  is  a  unit;  the  nerves, 
capillaries,  bones  and  hairs  of  the  fingers  are 
units,  as  are  the  cells  of  which  they  are  all  com- 
posed. 

English  individualism  deals  with  the  individual 
human  being — it  is  intellectual  individualism. 
Thinking  in  such  terms,  and  applying  their  thought 
to  the  affairs  of  the  state,  the  English-speaking  world 
built  up  a  social  system  on  the  supposition  that 
the  greatest  sum  of  human  happiness  and  nobility 
can  be  thus  secured. 


12  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

2.    Intellectual  Individualism 

Will  intellectual  individualism  work?  Can  a 
nation  succeed  that  permits  the  individual  citizens 
of  which  it  is  composed  to  extend  the  field  of  their 
activities  so  long  as  they  do  not  interfere  with  their 
fellows?  Some  light  is  thrown  on  that  question  by 
the  events  that  have  transpired  in  Europe  during 
the  past  few  decades. 

The  author  holds  no  brief  for  either  England  or 
Germany,  nor  will  any  effort  be  made  to  discuss  the 
war  of  1914.  The  one  problem  that  will  be  presented 
at  this  point  relates  to  the  experience  which  England 
has  had  with  the  intellectual  individualism  that  has 
been  made  the  corner-stone  of  her  social  philosophy. 
This  does  not  in  any  way  involve  the  question  of  the 
success  of  the  system  adopted  by  Germany.  It 
merely  raises  the  issues  that  are  involved  in  the 
experiences  of  England  and  suggests  some  of  the 
problems  that  America  must  face  if  she  follows  the 
English  example. 

Many  people  assumed  that  the  war  of  1914  would 
end  quickly  and  easily.  There  was,  throughout 
England,  an  easy  optimism.  A  few  weeks,  at  most 
a  few  months,  and  all  would  be  over.  The  German 
fleet  swept  from  the  seas,  the  Austrians  humbled, 
Germany  pushed  back  from  Paris,  Belgian  soil 
freed  from  the  invader — all  this  was  to  be  accom- 
plished by  the  army  and  navy,  with  that  deliberate 
dispatch  which  for  time  out  of  mind  had  marked 
the  triumphs  of  British  arms.  Weeks  drew  them- 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  13 

selves  into  months  and  months  into  years.  During 
the  frightful  interval,  criticisms  were  piled  high.  The 
members  of  the  cabinet,  the  field  leaders,  and  the 
other  officers  of  administration  all  came  in  for 
their  share  of  censure.  Here  and  there  a  voice  was 
raised,  crying  that  England  was  suffering — nay, 
some  even  said  dying — of  individualism. 

Is  individualism  a  disease?  Will  nations  die  of  it? 
We,  in  America,  have  it  hi  generous  plenty.  Will 
it  prove  fatal  to  the  United  States?  Has  it  been  a 
curse  in  England? 

3.     The  Industrial  Regime  in  England  and  the 
United  States 

The  same  forces  that  have  placed  the  industrial 
leaders  of  England  in  a  dominant  position  have 
placed  the  industrial  leaders  of  the  United  States  in 
a  dominant  position.  The  position  occupied  by  the 
American  leaders  is  perhaps  a  little  more  dizzy, 
because  in  one  sense  it  is  higher  and  less  secure.  In 
the  main,  however,  the  individualistic  doctrines 
advanced  in  both  countries  have  led  both  in  the 
same  direction  and  toward  the  same  end — the  pre- 
eminence of  industrial  power. 

The  sub-title  of  this  book,  "The  Industrial 
Re'gime,"  was  chosen  with  a  purpose.  First,  it  is 
perfectly  evident  to  even  the  casual  observer  that 
the  ruling  power  in  the  world  today  is  the  power  of 
industry.  The  word  " Re'gime"  is  used  in  recogni- 
tion of  this  rulership  or  leadership  of  industry. 


14  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

Second,  the  crucial  question  before  the  nation  today 
concerns  the  effectiveness  of  the  industrial  rule. 
The  industrial  leaders  are  directing  national  affairs. 
Are  they  directing  wisely?  The  industrial  machine 
has  dominated  the  community.  Has  this  industrial 
domination  proved  socially  advantageous? 

There  are  people,  not  a  few,  who  believe  that  the 
industrial  order  has  justified  itself;  who  are  for 
letting  things  stand  as  they  are.  But  will  they 
stand?  England  was  looked  to  as  the  mightiest 
power  in  the  world,  yet  hi  the  great  world  tourney 
she  did  not  immediately  demonstrate  her  supe- 
riority. 

This  individualism,  that  was  looked  to  as  a  source 
of  the  robust  national  health  without  which  a  nation 
must  cease  to  exist,  has  not  played  fair  with  Eng- 
land. For  two  centuries  individualism  has  held 
a  firm  grip  on  the  English  people,  and  now  it 
seems  to  have  drained  them  of  much  of  their 
vitality. 

The  ideal  of  individualism  developed  during  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  in  opposition  to 
the  oppressive  treatment  that  was  being  exercised 
by  a  decaying  Feudalism,  held  that  the  individual 
must  be  left  free  to  follow  his  own  inclinations,  which 
are  necessarily  good.  Nature's  man  is  a  good  man, 
according  to  this  philosophy,  and  the  important 
thing  is  to  let  man  be  free,  as  he  was  under  nature, 
so  that  he  might  live  out  the  yearnings  of  his 
heart. 


CHILD  LABORERS  OF  THE  COAL  MINES 
These  boys  are  employed  as  "slate  pickers."  As  the  coal 
comes  down  the  slide  they  must  pick  out  each  piece  of  rock  or 
slate  and  put  it  in  a  separate  chute.  It  is  constant  hard  work. — 
less  agreeable  than  going  to  school,  or  fishing  or  playing  baseball. 
(Copr.,  Underwood  &  Underwood.  New  York.) 


15 

4.    Laissez-Faire 

The  idea  of  individualism,  applied  to  industry, 
took  the  form  of  the  "laissez-faire"  doctrine. 
Industry  will  necessarily  develop  most  advantage- 
ously if  it  is  unrestricted.  Therefore  it  must  be 
"let  alone." 

This  doctrine  of  the  French  School  of  Physiocrats 
was  forced  upon  the  attention  of  England  by  the 
economist,  Adam  Smith,  at  the  time  (1776)  when  the 
modern  method  of  factory  production  was  getting  its 
start  in  the  British  Isles.  The  doctrine  offered 
marked  advantages  to  the  manufacturer,  because  it 
left  him  free  to  follow  his  own  devices.  The  scheme 
therefore  won  the  cordial  support  of  the  industrial 
class  at  the  time  that  it  was  ascending  to  a  position 
of  dominating  importance. 

The  laissez-faire  idea  gave  the  manufacturers 
exactly  what  they  most  desired — opportunity  to 
develop  their  new  projects,  free  from  hampering 
influences.  They  seized  the  idea  eagerly.  They 
taught  it,  preached  it,  defended  it.  Industry  must 
be  free  to  grow;  only  as  it  was  let  alone,  could  it 
demonstrate  its  full  possibilities. 

So  plausible  was  the  doctrine;  so  able  and  power- 
ful were  its  advocates;  so  completely  had  men 
reacted  against  tyranny  and  oppression;  so  eager 
were  they  for  liberty  in  whatever  form  it  might 
appear,  that  for  a  half  a  century  the  laissez-faire 
idea  held  complete  sway  over  the  policies  of 
England.  The  English  manufacturers  had  a  splen- 


16  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

did  chance  to  show  what  the  real  merits  of  the 
laissez-faire  idea  were.  Factory  industry  grew  up 
in  England,  unhampered  by  legislative  restric- 
tions. There  was  none  of  the  governmental  inter- 
ference that  hi  these  days  arouses  such  bitter  opposi- 
tion hi  many  industrial  circles.  No  social  idea  ever 
had  a  better  tryout  than  this  of  laissez-faire.  And 
the  results?  Words  almost  fail.  The  more  revolting 
details  do  not  bear  printing  outside  the  realm  of 
technical  literature.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  with  the  English  manufacturers  in 
full  control,  with  a  domination  of  the  world  markets, 
and  wholly  free  from  any  government  restrictions, 
the  conditions  hi  the  factory  districts  are  thus 
described  by  a  careful  student  of  the  problem  who  is 
writing  of  the  manner  in  which  the  workhouse  chil- 
dren were  sold  to  the  mill  owners:  "Sometimes 
regular  traffickers  would  take  the  place  of  the  manu- 
facturer, and  transfer  a  number  of  children  to  a 
factory  district,  and  there  keep  them,  generally  in 
some  dark  cellar,  till  they  could  hand  them  over  to  a 
mill-owner  hi  want  of  hands,  who  could  come  and 
examine  their  height,  strength,  and  bodily  capacities, 
exactly  as  did  the  slave  dealers  in  the  American 
markets.  After  that  the  children  were  simply  at 
the  mercy  of  their  owners,  nominally  as  apprentices, 
but  hi  reality  as  mere  slaves,  who  got  no  wages,  and 
whom  it  was  not  worth  while  even  to  feed  and 
clothe  properly,  because  they  were  so  cheap,  and 
their  places  could  be  so  easily  supplied.  .  .  .  The 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  17 

hours  of  their  labor  were  limited  only  by  exhaustion, 
after  many  modes  of  torture  had  been  unavailingly 
applied  to  force  continued  work.  Illness  was  no 
excuse:  no  child  was  accounted  ill  till  it  was  posi- 
tively impossible  to  force  him  or  her  to  continue  to 
labor,  hi  spite  of  all  the  cruelty  which  the  ingenuity 
of  a  tormenter  could  suggest.  Children  were  often 
worked  sixteen  hours  a  day,  by  day  and  by  night. 
Even  Sunday  was  used  as  a  convenient  tune  to 
clean  the  machinery.  The  author  of  'The  History 
of  the  Factory  Movement'  writes:  'In  stench,  in 
heated  rooms,  amid  the  constant  whirring  of  a 
thousand  wheels,  little  fingers  and  little  feet  were  kept 
in  ceaseless  action,  forced  into  unnatural  activity 
by  blows  from  the  heavy  hands  and  feet  of  the  merci- 
less overlooker,  and  the  infliction  of  bodily  pain  by 
instruments  of  punishment,  invented  by  the  sharp- 
ened ingenuity  of  insatiable  selfishness.'  They  were 
fed  upon  the  coarsest  and  cheapest  food.  .  .  .  They 
slept  by  turns,  and  hi  relays,  in  filthy  beds  which 
were  never  cool,  for  one  set  of  children  were  sent  to 
sleep  in  them  as  soon  as  the  others  had  gone  off  to 
their  daily  or  nightly  toil.  There  was  often  no  dis- 
crimination of  sexes;  and  disease,  misery,  and 
vice  grew  as  hi  a  hot-bed  of  contagion.  Some  of 
these  miserable  beings  tried  to  run  away.  To  pre- 
vent them  from  doing  so,  those  suspected  of  this 
tendency  had  irons  riveted  on  their  ankles,  with 
long  links  reaching  up  to  the  hips,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  work  and  sleep  hi  these  chains.  ...  * 

8 


18  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

Many  died,  and  were  buried  secretly  at  night  in 
some  desolate  spot,  lest  people  should  notice  the 
number  of  thegraves;  and  many  committed  suicide." 
There  Gibbins  stops  with  the  remark, — "One  dares 
not  trust  oneself  to  try  and  set  down  calmly  all  that 
might  be  told  about  this  awful  page  in  the  history 
of  industrial  England."1 

The  instances  adduced  in  the  course  of  Par- 
liamentary inquiries,  and  cited  by  Gibbins  on  sub- 
sequent pages,  burn  hot  into  the  imagination  of 
one  schooled  to  the  elements  of  humanitarian  feel- 
ing. In  one  section  (230)  on  " English  Slavery"  are 
set  down  the  records  of  case  after  case  of  little  chil- 
dren who  were  never  employed  "Under  five," 
chained,  beaten  and  in  some  cases  dying  of  exhaus- 
tion brought  on  by  excessive  toil. 

These  statements  are  corroborated  and  amplified 
by  the  historians  of  the  early  factory  system.  Thus 
Lecky,  in  his  "England  hi  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury,"2 writes:  "In  the  very  infancy  of  the  system, 
it  became  the  custom  of  the  master  manufacturer  to 
contract  with  the  managers  of  workhouses  through- 
out England,  and  of  the  charities  of  Scotland,  to 
send  their  young  children  to  the  factories  of  the 
great  towns.  Many  thousands  of  children  between 
the  ages  of  six  and  ten  were  thus  sent,  absolutely 
uncared  for  and  unprotected;  and  left  to  the  com- 


'    *  "Industry  in  England,"  H.  deB.  Gibbins.   New  York:  Scribner'a, 
1897,  pp.  388-90. 
*  Volume  VI,  pp.  224-25. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE;  19 

plete  disposal  of  masters  who  often  had  not  a  single 
thought  except  speedily  to  amass  fortunes,  and  who 
knew  that  if  the  first  supply  of  infant  labor  was  used, 
there  was  still  much  more  to  be  obtained.  Thou- 
sands of  children  at  this  early  age  might  be  found 
working  in  the  factories  of  England  and  Scotland, 
usually  from  twelve  to  fourteen,  sometimes  even 
fifteen  or  sixteen,  hours  a  day.  Not  infrequently 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  night.  ...  In  one 
case  brought  before  Parliament,  a  gang  of  these 
children  was  put  up  for  sale  among  a  bankrupt's 
effects,  and  publicly  advertised  as  part  of  the 
property.  In  another,  an  agreement  was  disclosed 
between  a  London  parish  and  a  Lancashire  manu- 
facturer, in  which  it  was  stipulated  that  with 
every  twenty  sound  children  one  idiot  should  be 
taken.  Instances  of  direct  and  aggravated  cruelty 
to  particular  children  were  probably  rare,  and 
there  appears  a  general  agreement  of  evidence 
that  they  were  confined  to  the  small  factories. 
But  labor  prolonged  for  periods  that  were  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  health  of  children  was 
general.  In  forty-two  out  of  the  forty-three 
factories  at  Manchester,  it  was  stated  before  the 
Parliamentary  Committee  in  1816,  that  the  actual 
hours  of  daily  labor  ranged  from  twelve  to  fourteen, 
and  in  one  case  they  were  fourteen  and  one-half. 
Even  as  late  as  1840,  when  the  most  important 
manufacturers  had  been  regulated  by  law,  Lord 
Ashley  was  able  to  show  that  boys  employed  in 


20  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

carpet  manufactories  at  Kidderminister  were  called 
up  at  three  and  four  in  the  morning,  and  kept  work- 
ing sixteen  or  eighteen  hours;  children  five  years 
old  were  engaged  in  the  unhealthy  trade  of  pin  mak- 
ing, and  were  kept  at  work  from  six  in  the  morning 
to  eight  at  night." 

The  desperate  straits  to  which  a  part  of  the 
working  population  of  England  was  subjected  as  a 
result  of  developing  the  factory  system,  are  described 
by  Lecky  hi  these  terms:3 

"The  woolen  manufacturing  in  the  eighteenth 
century  was  carried  on  by  numbers  of  small  masters 
in  their  own  homes.  They  usually  employed  about 
ten  journeymen  and  apprentices,  who  were  bound  to 
them  by  long  contracts,  who  boarded  in  master's 
house,  and  who  worked  together  with  him,  under  his 
immediate  superintendence.  In  Leeds  and  its 
neighborhood,  hi  1806,  there  were  no  less  than 
3,500  of  these  establishments.  But  the  gigantic 
factory  with  its  vast  capital,  its  costly  machinery, 
and  its  extreme  subdivision  of  labor,  soon  swept 
them  away.  (See  HowelPs  '  Conflicts  of  Capital  and 
Labor,'  pp.  84-88.)  Hand-loom  weaving,  once  a 
flourishing  trade — long  maintained  a  desperate 
competition  against  the  factories,  and  as  late  as 
1830  a  very  competent  observer  described  the 
multitude  of  weavers,  who  were  living  in  the  great 
cities,  in  houses  utterly  unfit  for  human  habitation, 

8  "England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  Lecky.     Vol.  VI,  pp. 
220-21. 


21 


working  fourteen  hours  a  day  and  upwards,  and 
earning  only  five  to  eight  shillings  a  week.  (See 
Kay's  'Moral  and  Physical  Condition  of  the 
Working  Classes/  p.  44;  Wade's  'History  of  the 
Middle  and  Working  Classes,'  p.  571.)" 

Even  more  revolting  are  the  descriptions  written 
of  the  conditions  that  surrounded  the  lives  of  the 
mine  workers  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Women  as  well  as  men  were  taken  into  the 
mines,  and  there  subjected  to  the  most  fearful  hard- 
ships. In  some  cases,  as  the  reports  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary investigation  showed,  the  women  dragged 
the  cars  through  passageways  that  were  too  low  to 
admit  of  the  use  of  ponies  or  mules. 

These  are  but  examples  of  the  many  passages  that 
might  be  cited  of  the  monstrous  conditions  of  labor 
prevailing  hi  English  industry  at  a  time  when  there 
was  no  vestige  of  governmental  interference.  The 
profits  of  the  business  were  immense,  and  to  these 
immense  profits  some  of  the  manufacturers  sacrificed 
every  consideration  of  humanity  and  decency. 
Laissez-faire  at  its  best,  was  indescribably,  unthink- 
ably  frightful. 

5.    Legislative  Interference 

Faced  by  such  conditions  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  more  far-seeing  of  English 
statesmen  saw  the  danger  to  British  national 
supremacy  in  a  system  of  such  fearful  exploitation. 
Beginning  in  1802,  with  the  first  Factory  Act,  law 


22  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

after  law  was  passed,  safeguarding  the  health,  first 
of  the  children,  and  later  of  women  and  men.  Even 
the  earliest  of  these  laws,  which  contained  little  more 
than  a  theoretical  departure  from  the  policy  of 
laissez-faire  was  carried,  to  use  Lecky's  phrase,  "in 
the  teeth  of  a  fierce  class  opposition."  The  manu- 
facturers banded  themselves  together  and  fought  the 
acts  one  by  one.  They  alleged  foreign  competition, 
the  danger  to  the  existence  of  British  industry, 
dwindling  profits,  and  finally,  the  right  of  Britons 
to  full  individual  liberty. 

Parliamentary  investigations  succeeded  one 
another,  and  revelations  that  they  made  were  so 
terrible  that  some  action  became  imperative.  This 
was  particularly  true  of  the  investigation  of  the 
mines.  The  findings  led  at  once  to  the  passage  of 
legislation  forbidding  the  work  of  women  under- 
ground. 

The  Act  of  1831  forbade  night  work  for  persons 
between  nine  and  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
limited  the  working  day  of  persons  under  eighteen 
years  to  twelve  hours  a  day  and  nine  hours  on 
Saturday.  This  law,  applying  to  cotton  factories 
only,  was  passed  after  a  third  of  a  century  of  cease- 
less agitation.  Under  it,  children  of  nine  could  be 
called  upon  to  work  sixty-nine  hours  a  week.  "The 
hours  of  black  slaves'  labor  in  our  colonies  were  at 
that  very  time  carefully  limited  by  law  (Orders  in 
Council,  November  2,  1831)  to  nine  per  day  for 
adults,  and  six  for  young  persons  and  children,  while 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  23 

night  work  was  simply  prohibited."4  Not  until 
1847  was  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  and  children 
secured. 

6.    Laissez-Faire  Justified 

The  debates  in  Parliament  over  the  early  factory 
acts  sound  wierd  and  uncanny  in  twentieth  century 
ears.  The  unspeakable  working  and  living  condi- 
tions of  the  industrial  population  were  explained  and 
justified  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  individual 
freedom. 

The  revolting  conditions  surrounding  the  lives  of 
the  working  population  were  more  than  offset,  in 
the  eyes  of  English  statesmen,  by  the  cheapness  of 
the  product,  the  profits  of  the  industries  to  the  manu- 
facturers and  the  splendid  trade  balances  fhat  were 
growing  in  favor  of  England. 

England  was  prosperous.  She  had  developed  the 
factory  a  generation  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  the 
world;  consequently  she  was  able  to  undersell  her 
competitors  in  the  world  markets.  It  is  probably 
true  that  Napoleon  was  beaten  in  the  weaving  sheds 
of  England.  The  English  factories  threw  the  French 
hand-weavers  out  of  employment,  while  they  took 
the  French  markets. 

England  was  rapidly  insuring  her  place  as  the 
premier  commercial  nation  of  the  world.  Her 
factories  captured  markets  through  the  low-priced 
goods  that  she  turned  out.  Her  ships  were  engaged 

4  "Industry  in  England,"  op.  tit.,  pp.  398-99. 


24  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

in  carrying  these  products  to  all  parts  of  the  world 
and  bringing  back  raw  material  which,  hi  turn, 
would  be  manufactured  and  sent  out.  England 
bought  cheap  and  sold  dear.  She  made  a  manu- 
facturer's and  a  trader's  profit.  The  British  nation 
was  rapidly  growing  rich. 

Political  economy,  in  those  early  days,  measured 
prosperity  hi  terms  of  trade  balances.  Profits  were 
high — they  were  often  equal  to  hundreds  of  per  cent 
on  the  investment.  Engaged  as  she  was,  hi  the 
importing  of  raw  materials  and  exporting  finished 
goods,  England,  from  the  standpoint  of  classical 
political  economy,  was  hi  a  superb  position. 

The  factory  acts  improved  working  conditions 
somewhat.  Still  the  exploitation  of  labor  continued. 
Wages  were  low.  Rents  were  high.  The  manu- 
facturers grew  rich  while  their  employees  lived,  for 
the  most  part,  hi  the  depths  of  poverty. 

The  yeomanry  of  England  had  disappeared. 
Agricultural  land  had  been  bought  up,  commons 
had  been  enclosed,  and  the  large  sheep  raisers  had 
taken  over  the  land.  Now,  under  the  impetus  of 
factory  organization,  the  people  were  moving  rapidly 
into  cities  and  towns,  and  while  the  country  villages 
became  "rotten  boroughs,"  the  manufacturing 
centers  swarmed  with  human  beings.  Housing 
was  inadequate;  sanitation  was  primitive;  disease 
flourished. 

Still  England  was  prosperous.  Her  trade  was 
increasing;  her  manufactures  were  growing  even 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  25 

faster;  profits  were  large;  wealth  was  piling  up  at  a 
phenomenal  pace.  Trade,  manufacture,  profits, 
wealth — these  were  prosperity.  Economists  and 
statesmen  alike  rejoiced  hi  their  country's  progress. 

7.     The  Prophets  of  Better  Things 

The  prosperity-enthusiasts  did  not  have  the  field 
entirely  to  themselves.  During  the  early  years  of 
the  exploitation  of  English  labor  by  the  newly 
created  system  of  factory  industry,  there  were  not 
lacking  voices  that  uttered  vehement  warnings  and 
earnest  prophesies  concerning  the  outcome  of  a  sys- 
tem of  industry  that  built  prosperity  upon  poverty. 
Thus,  Ruskin  in  one  of  his  analogies,  points  out 
the  similarity  existing  between  a  national  household 
and  a  domestic  household.  In  the  one,  as  in  the 
other,  the  prosperity  of  the  institution  must  be 
analyzed  hi  terms  of  the  well  being  of  the  members. 
If  any  do  not  share  in  the  prosperity  of  home  or 
state,  perhaps,  after  all,  the  prosperity  is  not  real. 
Applying  this  proposition  to  England,  that  was 
called  prosperous  by  the  classical  economists  of  his 
time,  he  says:  "The  power  of  our  wealth  seems 
limited  as  respects  the  comfort  of  the  servants,  no 
less  than  their  quietude.  The  persons  hi  the  kitchen 
appear  to  be  ill-dressed,  squalid,  half-starved. 
One  cannot  help  imagining  that  the  riches  of  the 
establishment  must  be  of  a  very  theoretical  and 
documentary  character."5  Again  he  notes  the 

5  "Unto  This  Last,"  John  Ruskin. 


26  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

"beautiful  arrangement  of  dwelling-house  for  man 
and  beast,  by  which  we  have  grouse  and  blackcock, 
so  many  brace  to  the  acre,  and  men  and  women,  so 
many  brace  to  the  garret."6  Throughout  his  dis- 
cussion of  political  economy,  Ruskin  makes  similar 
comparisons,  and  from  each  one  he  draws  the  con- 
clusion that  true  national  prosperity  can  never  be 
built  upon  poverty  and  squalor.  Where  wealth 
accumulates  and  men  decay,  there  can  be  but  one 
final  result. 

Carlyle,  too,  had  nothing  but  contempt  for  the 
widening  abyss  between  poverty  and  riches.  It 
was  hi  1831  that  he  wrote:  "Does  not  the  observant 
eye  discern  everywhere  that  saddest  spectacle: 
The  Poor  perishing,  like  neglected,  foundered, 
Draught-Cattle,  of  Hunger  and  Over-work;  the 
Rich,  still  more  wretchedly,  of  Idleness,  Satiety,  and 
Over-Growth."7  No  one  was  more  scornful  of  the 
new  regime  than  was  Carlyle,  who  found  in  it  the 
negation  of  many  of  the  social  principles  that  were 
to  him  most  dear.  At  a  tune  when  they  "on  all 
hands  hear  it  passionately  proclaimed:  Laissez- 
Faire,"  Carlyle  found  nothing  but  condemnation  of 
the  doctrine  hi  the  events  that  were  transpiring 
about  him.  It  is  because  of  this  that  he  makes 
Teufelsdrockh  exclaim:  "Call  ye  that  a-  Society 
where  there  is  no  longer  any  Social  Idea  extant; 
not  so  much  as  the  Idea  of  a  common  Home,  but 

«  "Crown  of  Wild  Olive,"  Ruskin. 
7  "Sartor  Resartus,"  Chapter  5. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  27 

of  a  common  over-crowded  Lodging  House?  Where 
each,  isolated,  regardless  of  his  neighbor,  turns 
against  his  neighbor,  clutches  what  he  can  get,  and 
cries  'Mine!'  and  calls  it  peace  because,  in  the  cut- 
purse  and  cut-throat  Scramble,  no  steel  knives,  but 
only  a  far  cunninger  sort  can  be  employed?"8 
Again  and  again  he  records  his  vigorous  protests 
against  the  abuses  of  the  new  industry  that  was 
preaching  natural  law  while  it  multiplied  profits. 

There  were  splendid  true  things  said  by  Ruskin; 
Carlyle  scattered  his  invective  over  the  fields  of 
social  wrong  that  he  saw  about  him;  but  perhaps 
the  fiercest  attacks  against  the  abuses  of  the  profit 
system  were  made  by  Charles  Dickens.  "Hard 
Times"  reveals  him  at  his  best  in  his  analysis  of 
"Prosperity."  He  holds  the  thing  up,  looks  at  it, 
laughs  at  it,  and  then  throws  it  from  him,  shuddering 
at  its  noisomeness  and  dirt. 

When  Mr.  McChoakumchild,  the  schoolmaster, 
assays  to  teach  about  "National  Prosperity,"  little 
Sissy  Jupe,  who  has  been  raised  hi  poverty,  fails 
completely  to  understand  his  point  of  view.  "Girl 
number  twenty,"  he  says,  "Now  this  schoolroom  is 
a  nation.  And  hi  this  nation  there  are  fifty  millions 
of  money.  Isn't  this  a  prosperous  nation,  and  ain't 
you  in  a  thriving  state?"  Poor  Sissy  was  sadly 
puzzled,  but  she  gave  the  wrong  answer,  for  she 
said,  "I  couldn't  know  whether  it  was  a  prosperous 
nation  or  not,  and  whether  I  was  in  a  thriving  state 

8  Sartor  Resartus,  Chapter  5. 


28  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

or  not,  unless  I  know  who  had  got  the  money,  and 
whether  any  of  it  was  mine."  So  the  teacher 
stated  the  question  differently.  Said  he:  "This 
schoolroom  is  an  immense  town,  and  in  it  there  are 
a  million  of  inhabitants,  and  only  five-and-twenty 
are  starved  to  death  hi  the  streets  hi  the  course  of  a 
year.  What  is  your  remark  on  that  proportion?" 
Again,  Sissy  was  wrong,  for  she  said  she  "thought 
it  must  be  just  as  hard  on  those  that  were  starved, 
whether  the  others  be  a  million  or  a  million  million." 
So  the  teacher  tried  once  more  to  give  his  point  of 
view.  "I  find,"  he  explained,  "that  in  a  given  time 
a  hundred  thousand  persons  went  to  sea  on  long 
voyages,  and  only  five  hundred  of  them  were 
drowned  or  burnt  to  death.  What  is  the  per- 
centage?" "Nothing,"  Sissy  replied,  "to  the  rela- 
tions and  friends  of  the  people  who  were  killed." 
And  she  was  wrong  again! 

Thus  does  Dickens  ridicule  the  proposition  that 
the  chief  aim  of  statesmanship  is  to  build  a  pros- 
perity based  upon  profits  and  trade-balances.  Living 
in  an  age  when  prosperity  was  measured  in  terms  of 
the  well-being  of  manufacturers  and  traders,  he 
recorded  his  contempt  of  the  reverence  with  which 
the  British  nation  regarded  this  kind  of  prosperity. 

A  very  different  note  enters  his  language  when 
he  turns  from  the  lives  of  the  owners  and  the 
exploiters  to  the  lives  of  the  workers.  He  enters  the 
subject  abruptly. 

"In  the  hardest-working  part  of  Coketown;   in 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  29 

the  innermost  fortifications  of  that  ugly  citadel, 
where  Nature  was  as  strongly  bricked  out  as  killing 
airs  and  gases  were  bricked  in;  at  the  heart  of  the 
labyrinth  of  narrow  courts  upon  courts,  and  close 
streets  upon  streets,  ...  in  the  last  close  nook  of 
this  great  exhausted  receiver,  where  the  chimneys 
for  want  of  air  to  make  a  draught  were  built  in  an 
immense  variety  of  stunted  and  crooked  shapes; 
.  .  .  among  the  multitude  of  Coketown,  generically 
called  'the  Hands' — a  race  who  would  have  found 
more  favor  with  some  people  if  Providence  had  seen 
fit  to  make  them  only  hands,  or,  like  the  lower 
creatures  of  the  seashore,  only  hands  and  stomachs 
— lived  a  certain  Stephen  Blackpool,  forty  years  of 
age. 

"Stephen  looked  older,  but  he  had  had  a  hard 
life.  It  is  said  that  every  life  has  its  roses  and 
thorns.  There  seemed,  however,  to  have  been  a 
mistake  or  misadventure  hi  Stephen's  case,  whereby 
somebody  else  had  become  possessed  of  his  roses, 
and  he  had  become  possessed  of  the  same  some- 
body's thorns  in  addition  to  his  own." 

Here  Dickens  is  holding  up  to  ridicule  some  of 
the  favorite  arguments  of  the  political  economists 
of  his  day.  But  in  many  a  characterization  through- 
out his  novels  he  describes  poverty,  privation  and 
hardship,  particularly  among  children,  with  a  telling 
power.  As  if  to  summarize  his  indictment  against 
a  society  that  permitted  such  frightful  conditions 
to  surround  the  lives  of  little  children,  he  writes 


30  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

the  conversation  between  Scrooge,  symbolizing  com- 
mercialism, and  the  Spirit  of  Christmas,  symbolizing 
the  generosity  of  human  nature,  in  words  of  gravest 
import. 

"From  the  foldings  of  its  robe  it  brought 
two  children;  wretched,  abject,  frightful,  hideous, 
miserable.  .  .  . 

"Oh,  Man!  look  here!  Look,  look,  down  here!" 
exclaimed  the  Ghost. 

"They  were  a  boy  and  a  girl.  Yellow,  meager, 
ragged,  scowling,  wolfish;  but  prostrate,  too,  in 
their  humility.  Where  graceful  youth  should  have 
filled  their  features  out  and  touched  them  with  its 
freshest  tints,  a  stale  and  shriveled  hand,  like  that 
of  age,  had  pinched  and  twisted  them  and  pulled 
them  into  shreds.  Where  angels  might  have  sat 
enthroned,  devils  lurked  and  glared  out  menac- 
ing. ... 

"Scrooge  started  back,  appalled.  Having  them 
shown  to  him  hi  this  way,  he  tried  to  say  they  were 
fine  children,  but  the  words  choked  themselves, 
rather  than  be  parties  to  a  lie  of  such  enormous 
magnitude."  Scrooge  then  asks  to  whom  they 
belonged. 

"They  are  Man's,"  said  the  Spirit,  looking  down 
upon  them.  "And  they  cling  to  me,  appealing  from 
their  fathers.  This  boy  is  Ignorance.  This  girl  is 
Want.  Beware  of  them  both,  and  all  of  their 
degree,  but  most  of  all  beware  this  boy,  for  on  his 
brow  I  see  that  written  which  is  Doom  unless  the 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  31 

writing  be  erased.  Deny  it!"  cried  the  Spirit, 
stretching  out  its  hand  toward  the  city.  "  Slander 
those  who  tell  it  ye!  Admit  it  for  your  factious 
purposes,  and  make  it  worse!  And  bide  the  end!" 

Ruskin  turns  from  such  conditions  and  descrip- 
tions with  his  famous  statement :  "  There  is  no  wealth 
but  life."  He  had  read  the  current  Political  Econ- 
omy, with  its  laudation  of  trade-balances,  profits 
and  production.  Against  such  patently  fallacious 
doctrine  he  revolted.  Bullion  would  not  save  a 
country,  neither  would  trade-balances,  nor  yet 
profits.  Real  human  prosperity  was  impossible 
while  poverty  raised  its  menacing  form  beside  riches. 
Against  such  a  contradiction,  he  hurled  his  great 
affirmation,  "There  is  no  wealth  but  life.  Life, 
including  all  its  powers,  of  love,  of  joy  and  of 
admiration.  That  country  is  the  richest  which 
nourishes  the  greatest  number  of  noble  and  happy 
human  beings;  that  man  is  richest  who,  having  per- 
fected the  functions  of  his  own  life  to  the  utmost, 
has  also  the  widest  helpful  influence,  both  personal 
and  by  means  of  his  possessions,  over  the  lives  of 
others."9 

These  were  his  standards  of  economics.  His 
"veins  of  wealth "  were  not  yellow  but  purple.  They 
were  in  the  flesh;  not  in  the  rock.  He  saw  life,  with 
all  of  its  abundant  possibilities,  as  the  goal  of 
national  existence.  How  far  had  the  leaders  of 
commercialism  fallen  from  that  high  standard! 

•"Unto  This  Laat."j 


32  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

8.     The  Deluge 

The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  a  mighty 
struggle  in  England  between  those  who  believed  in 
exploitation  and  those  who  demanded  at  least  a 
measure  of  humane  treatment  for  the  workers. 
On  the  whole,  the  hundred  years  recorded  decided 
progress.  The  first  factory  act  (1802)  was  an  infant 
in  swaddling  clothes  compared  with  the  acts  that 
followed — each  more  drastic  than  its  predecessor. 
Laws  were  altered  to  legalize  trade  unions;  educa- 
tion was  made  general;  the  hours  of  labor  and  the 
conditions  surrounding  the  labor  were  vastly  un- 
proved. Toward  the  end  of  the  century  an  ambitious 
scheme  of  social  legislation  was  formulated,  and  in 
the  dawning  years  of  the  twentieth  century  the 
scheme  was  launched. 

And  it  was  high  tune! 

England,  mistress  of  the  seas,  proud  carrier  of  the 
traffic  of  the  world,  the  center  of  international 
finance;  the  richest  among  the  nations — England 
was  reeking  with  poverty.  Beside  her  factories 
and  warehouses  were  vilest  slums  into  which  the 
people  huddled,  as  in  Ruskin's  day,  so  many  brace 
to  the  garret.  There,  in  the  back  alleys  of  civiliza- 
tion, babies  were  born  and  babies  died,  while  those 
who  lived  grew  to  the  impotent  manhood  of  the 
street  Hooligan. 

The  power  and  glory  of  the  British  empire  were 
built  on  the  Cannon-gate  of  Edinburgh  and  the 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  33 

Waterloo  Junction  slum  of  London.     Thus  based, 
were  the  foundations  secure? 

The  Crimean  War  came,  and  ended,  on  the 
whole,  to  the  credit  of  Great  Britain.  Then  a  half- 
century  passed  during  which  the  British  "  fought  a 
hundred  campaigns  against  men  without  trousers." 
«  The  Boer  war  gave  the  English-speaking  world  a 
jolt.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  typical  Britain 
was  still  pictured  as  a  sturdy  man,  with  round,  ruddy 
cheeks  and  a  big  frame,  built  of  roast  beef  and 
English  home-brewed  ale.  He  was  the  victor  at 
Poitiers,  Agincourt,  Crecy  and  Waterloo.  The  Boers 
were  a  small  group  of  farmers,  easily  disposed  of. 
Still  the  war  dragged  on.  The  Colonial  troops  came 
in  and  won  some  battles.  Finally,  outnumbered  and 
driven  into  a  corner,  the  Boers  made  terms. 

The  British  nation  was  uneasy.  It  was  not  the 
mismanagement  of  the  war,  nor  the  fact  that  the 
British  army  at  the  front  had  been  facetiously 
described  as  "an  army  of  lions  led  by  asses."  Sensa- 
tional reports  were  afloat  regarding  the  character 
of  the  "lions." 

k  Charges  about  the  recruiting  were  most  disquiet- 
ing. The  physical  standards  for  acceptance  in  the 
army  were  low,  and  yet  large  numbers  of  applicants 
had  been  rejected  for  all  kinds  of  physical  defects. 
The  rejection  rate  for  the  recruits  as  a  whole  seems  to 
have  been  about  two  out  of  five  offering.  However, 
there  were  many  instances  in  which  the  rate  went 
very  much  higher  than  this.  "In  the  Manchester 

8 


34  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

district  11,000  men  offered  themselves  for  war  service 
between  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  October,  1899, 
and  July,  1900.  Of  this  number  8,000  were  found  to 
be  physically  unfit  to  carry  a  rifle  and  stand  the 
fatigues  of  discipline.  Of  the  3,000  who  were 
accepted  only  1,200  attained  the  moderate  standard 
of  muscular  power  and  chest  measurement  required 
by  the  military  authorities.  In  other  words,  two  out 
of  every  three  men  willing  to  bear  arms  in  the 
Manchester  district  are  virtually  invalids."10  Even 
more  extreme  charges  were  made  by  Dr.  Robert  R. 
Rentoul  in  a  book  entitled  "Race  Culture  or  Race 
Suicide"  (The  Walter  Scott  Pub.  Co.,  London,  1906), 
which  took  up  the  problem,  first  from  the  side  of  the 
medical  profession,  showing  how  widespread  serious 
physical  defect  really  was,  and  then  urging  the 
necessity  of  some  form  of  drastic  action  looking  to 
the  improvement  of  the  race  standard  of  the 
English. 

Doctor.  Rentoul  (p.  19)  states:  "As  regards  the 
rejections  in  1902,  of  those  wishing  to  enter  the  army, 
there  was  an  increase  of  26.77  per  thousand  as  com- 
pared with  the  previous  year.  Of  recruits  in  Eng- 
land, the  rejection  rate  was  335  per  1,000;  Scotland, 
275;  and  Ireland,  293.  Of  the  previous  occupations 
of  recruits  rejected,  359  per  thousand  were  artisans, 
328  shopmen  and  clerks,  and  329  laborers. 

"The  following  are  some  of  the  causes  of  rejection: 

10  "Efficiency  and  Empire,"  Arnold  White.      Methuen  &  Co., 
London,  1901,  pp.  102-03. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  35 

syphilis,  219;  debility,  343;  defective  vision,  3,437; 
disease  of  the  heart,  1,518;  loss  of  many  teeth, 
4,316;  varicocele,  1,103;  flat  feet,  1,090;  under 
height,  1,015;  under  chest  measurement,  4,969; 
under  weight,  1,903.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
largest  number  of  rejections  were  for  defective 
development — chiefly  chest  measurement. 

"When  I  mention  that  the  nunimum  chest  measure- 
ment— chest  fully  expanded — was  33^  inches;  weight 
112  pounds,  and  height  5  feet  2  inches,  it  will  be 
recognized  that  a  great  amount  of  physical  deteriora- 
tion exists.  Nor  can  it  be  contended  that  the  medical 
examination  is  severe,  as  a  reference  to  the  Official 
Regulations  for  the  Army  Service,  and  under  the 
"  Rules  for  the  Examination  of  Recruits,"  no  order 
is  made  for  the  examiners  to  examine  the  urine  for 
kidney  disease  or  diabetes." 

Doctor  Rentoul  comments  further  on  the  fact  that 
these  are  the  rejections  by  the  examining  medical 
officer.  The  War  Office  would  publish  no  figures 
showing  the  number  of  rejections  by  the  recruiting 
sergeants. 

Regarding  the  rejections  in  the  navy,  Doctor 
Rentoul  remarks,  that  "it  is  to  be  greatly  deplored 
that  the  Admiralty,  persistently  refused  to  publish 
statistics."  He  mentions  one  statement  from  an 
apparently  authoritative  source  to  the  effect  that 
the  rejection  rate  in  the  navy  is  "fully  fifty  per 
cent"  (p.  19). 

The  Parliamentary  Committee  on  Physical  Dete- 


36  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

rioration  insists  that  the  recruiting  figures  reflect 
less  upon  the  physical  status  of  the  English  people 
as  a  whole  than  they  do  upon  the  type  of  man  that 
the  army  attracts.  One  of  the  army  officers  who 
testified  described  the  recruits  as  very  largely 
"rubbish." 

This  is  not  the  entire  explanation,  however.  The 
committee  found  some  very  serious  conditions  pre- 
vailing among  the  school  children  to  whom  it  devoted 
a  great  deal  of  attention.  Very  careful  evidence 
was  offered,  based  on  the  measurement  of  the  chil- 
dren in  different  parts  of  the  population.  The 
children  going  to  the  schools  frequented  by  the  well- 
to-do  showed  every  evidence  of  good  physical  condi- 
tion. Among  the  children  of  the  poor  the  facts  were 
far  otherwise.  "  With  regard  to  physical  degeneracy, 
the  children  frequenting  the  poorer  schools  of  Lon- 
don and  the  large  towns  betray  a  most  serious 
condition  of  affairs,  calling  for  ameliorative  and 
arrestive  measures,  the  most  impressive  features 
being  the  apathy  of  parents  as  regards  the  school, 
the  lack  of  parental  care  of  children,  the  poor  phy- 
sique, powers  of  endurance,  and  educational  attain- 
ments of  the  children  attending  school."  The  same 
page  has  a  comment  on  the  "very  abundant  signs 
of  physical  defect  traceable  to  neglect,  poverty,  and 
ignorance."11  These  statements  are  supported  by  a 
great  body  of  material,  showing  that  the  children  of 


u  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration.    London. 
1904,  Vol.  1,  pp.  13-14. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  37 

the  poor,  of  whom  there  seem  to  be  an  alarming 
number,  are  badly  nourished,  improperly  clad,  low  in 
weight,  under  height,  and  suffering  from  many 
physical  defects.  The  picture  which  this  com- 
mittee of  Parliament  paints  is,  indeed,  a  black  one 
for  any  friend  of  England  to  contemplate. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  town  dwellers  are  suffering 
from  the  effects  of  town  dwelling.  The  figures  show 
that  clearly  enough.  Ripley,  in  his  "Races  of 
Europe,"  generalized  this  fact  in  these  words:  "All 
over  Britain  there  are  indications  of  this  law,  that 
town  populations  are  on  the  average  comparatively 
short  of  stature.  The  townsmen  of  Glasgow  and 
Edinburgh  are  four  inches  or  more  shorter  than  the 
country  folk  round  about,  and  thirty-six  pounds  on 
the  average  lighter  in  weight.  Doctor  Beffoe,  the 
great  authority  on  this  subject,  concludes  his 
investigation  of  the  population  of  Great  Britain 
thus:  "It  may  therefore  be  taken  as  proved  that 
the  stature  of  men  hi  the  large  towns  of  Britain  is 
lowered  considerably  below  the  standard  of  the 
nation"  (p.  552). 

The  city  population  is  suffering  severely.  The 
country  population  is  being  drained  into  the  city 
at  an  alarmingly  rapid  rate. 

There  is  a  surprisingly  small  amount  of  rural 
population  left  in  the  British  Isles.  The  Com- 
mittee on  Physical  Deterioration  places  the  town 
population  of  England  and  Wales  at  77  per  cent  of 
the  total  population.  That  leaves  but  twenty-three 


38  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

of  each  hundred  in  the  villages  and  on  the  farms. 
Even  this  small  fraction  of  the  English  nation,  from 
which  the  reddest  blood  was  wont  to  flow,  is  hi  a 
pitiable  plight.  ' '  Rural  England, ' '  writes  Masterman, 
"beyond  the  radius  of  certain  favored  neighborhoods, 
and  apart  from  the  specialized  population  which 
serves  the  necessities  of  the  country  house,  is 
everywhere  hastening  to  decay.  No  one  stays  there 
who  can  possibly  find  employment  elsewhere.  All 
the  boys  and  girls  with  energy  and  enterprise  forsake 
at  the  commencement  of  maturity  the  life  of  the 
fields  for  the  life  of  the  town."12  Continuing,  Master- 
man cites  example  after  example  of  the  decay  of  the 
rural  life  that  remains  in  England. 

The  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration  was 
equally  alarmed  over  the  apparent  failure  of  the 
rural  population.  They  comment  on  "the  with- 
drawal from  the  rural  districts  of  the  most  capable 
of  the  population,  leaving  the  inferior  to  supply 
their  places  and  continue  the  stock,  the  evil  being 
often  aggravated,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  by  the 
drifting  into  the  country  of  the  debilitated  town 
population,  which  is  crowded  out  by  the  onrush  of 
more  vigorous  elements.  There  appears  on  the 
face  of  it  to  be  considerable  probability  that  both 
these  movements  are  hi  operation"  (Vol.  1,  pp. 
34-35). 

Could  a  situation  be  more  serious?     Perhaps  it  is 


12  "The  Condition  of  England,"  C.  F.  G.  Masterman.     London: 
Metheun  &  Co.,  First  Ed.,  1909:  Fourth  Ed.,  1910,  p.  190. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  39 

most  effectively  brought  out  in  the  data  that  was 
presented  with  regard  to  school  children.  Conditions 
seem  to  be  worst  in  the  largest  centers  of  population. 
Thus  the  Committee  .on  Physical  Deterioration 
reports  greater  extremes  between  the  well-to-do  and 
the  poor  children  hi  London  than  elsewhere.  In 
London,  the  report  states,  "The  difference  between 
the  good  and  the  poor  types  is  very  grave."  The 
report  makes  the  further  point  that  among  the 
well-to-do  the  standard  for  children  seems  to  be 
about  the  same  everywhere.  "The  best  children  are 
practically  equally  good  in  all  towns."  Among  the 
poor  children,  however,  there  is  a  great  difference. 
"In  the  case  of  younger  children  the  worst  in 
London  are  lower  in  stature  than  the  worst  else- 
where— Manchester,  Salford,  Leeds.  The  curves  in 
Manchester  and  Salford  are  flatter  than  elsewhere, 
due  possibly  to  the  wider  prevalence  of  rickets,  but 
associated  also  probably  with  the  Celtic  strain  in  the 
population"  (p.  73,  Appendix). 

Taken  alone,  the  problem  in  England  seems  to  be 
serious.  But  it  cannot  be  taken  alone.  England 
has  competitors.  What  can  be  said  of  the  com- 
parative position  of  the  people  hi  the  countries  with 
whom  England  must  contend  for  the  markets  of 
the  world? 

Arnold  White  and  Arthur  Shadwell  took  that 
matter  very  much  to  heart.  The  British  Board  of 
Trade  conducted  an  investigation  into  the  cost  and 
standard  of  living  of  the  working  populations  of 


40  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

the  leading  industrial  countries  of  the  world.  The 
Board  of  Trade  reports  make  it  appear  that  the 
British  workman  is  severely  handicapped  as  com- 
pared to  the  workers  in  competitive  countries. 

Doctor  Shadwell,  after  a  searching  personal 
investigation  into  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  hi  Germany,  England  and  the  United  States, 
gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  workers  of  England 
are  hi  a  position  of  distinct  inferiority.  He  utters 
a  solemn  warning  to  the  people  of  England,  and  in 
the  final  chapter  of  his  painstaking  study  he  says,  hi 
emphatic  language,  that  unless  Britain  can  make 
some  fundamental  improvements  hi  the  physical 
and  moral  standards  of  her  workers,  she  is  helpless 
hi  her  struggle  for  world  markets.13 

The  conclusions  reached  by  Arnold  White,  hi  his 
"Efficiency  and  Empire"  are  no  less  drastic.  Here 
are  some  of  his  phrases:  "Britain  has  four  serious 
rivals,  and  while  none  of  the  four  is  deteriorating 
in  physical  stamina,  two  of  them  are  actually 
improving."  France  has  her  peasant  proprietor- 
ship. "Where  a  successful  Englishman  of  the 
humbler  ranks  takes  a  public-house  in  a  town  street, 
a  Frenchman  who  has  saved  money  buys  a  bit  of 
land."  Germany,  he  says,  "is  improving  the  phy- 
sique of  her  people  by  the  wise  prevision  of  her 
statesmen."  In  Russia  and  the  United  States  the 
people  have  an  abundance  of  land  and  they  are 

""Industrial  Efficiency,"  Arthur  Shadwell.  Longmans,  Green 
&  Co.,  London  and  New  York,  1906. 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  41 

living  on  it.  "Nations  that  renounce  the  strength 
that  comes  from  living  in  the  open  air  do  not  long 
continue  to  produce  efficient  men."  "It  may  be 
said,  our  aristocracy  and  our  middle  class  are  gen- 
erally of  good  stamina.  Granted.  But  no  courage 
or  stamina  in  the  comfortable  classes  will  avail  us 
in  the  great  day  of  wrath,  if  the  masses  are  deficient 
in  physical  health.  Let  those  who  think  that 
England  is  safe  watch  the  white  faces  of  the  street 
crowds"  and  "the  swarming  masses  in  the  un- 
touched slums  in  the  South  and  East  of  London,  or 
with  the  white-faced  operatives  of  Manchester, 
Northampton  or  Leicester."14 

9.    Individualism  versus  Liberty 

Passionately  the  leaders  of  -British  thought  pro- 
claimed the  doctrine  of  laissez-faire.  Individualism 
was  to  be  enthroned!  Liberty  was  to  triumph! 
Alas,  for  the  disaster! 

The  individualism  of  England  was  based  on  the 
law  of  self-interest — the  dominant  motive  hi  men's 
lives  according  to  the  accepted  philosophy  of  the 
time.  The  doctrine  of  laissez-faire  became  a  weapon 
in  the  hands  of  the  propertied  classes — a  weapon 
that  was  used  and  still  is  used  to  repress  and  confine 
the  individuality  of  those  who  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  have  no  property. 

Under  the  individualism  that  developed  in  Nine- 
teenth Century  England,  profit-seeking  selfishness 

14  "Efficiency  and  Empire,"  op.  cit.,  pp.  105-07.  ; 


42  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

strangled  liberty,  and  the  individual  was  free  in 
name  and  slave  in  fact.  Poverty,  child  labor, 
woman  exploitation,  squalor  and  misery  all  flourished 
in  the  name  of  liberty,  and  they  flourished  because 
they  were  the  basis  of  handsome  commercial  profits. 

The  United  States  has  taken  from  Great  Britain 
the  nomenclature  of  liberty.  She  has  likewise 
copied  her  machinery  of  exploitation.  Here,  as  hi 
England,  squalor,  child  labor  and  beggarly  wages 
challenge  the  boasted  prosperity  of  a  nation  that 
tolerates  abject  poverty  side  by  side  with  extrava- 
gant wealth. 

Like  Great  Britain,  the  United  States  must  stand 
in  the  competition  of  nations.  Space  does  not  per- 
mit, nor  does  the  occasion  require  a  statement  of 
the  status  of  individualism  in  Germany,  Only  this 
must  be  said:  There  are  those  who  resent  the  mili- 
tary bureaucracy  of  Germany  because  it  has  trampled 
upon  the  feet  of  liberty.  Let  the  same  individuals 
beware  lest  the  plutocracy  of  England  and  the 
United  States  trample  liberty  into  the  dust. 

10.     The  Message  of  Social  Science 

We,  in  America,  stand  face  to  face  with  portentous 
problems.  Our  social  standards  and  our  social 
philosophy  are  both  on  trial.  If  they  are  to  survive 
they  must  withstand  the  test  of  effectiveness. 

Democratic  institutions  are  made  effective  only 
as  the  citizenship  is  intelligent  and  aggressive. 
Hear  Carlyle  as  he  counsels  boldness  and  courage: 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  43 

"Strangely  enough,"  he  makes  Teufelsdrockh  say 
of  his  spiritual  troubles,  "I  lived  in  a  continual 
indefinite,  pining  fear;  tremulous,  pusillanimous, 
apprehensive  of  I  knew  not  what;  it  seemed  as  if 
all  things  in  the  Heavens  above  and  the  Earth 
beneath  were  but  boundless  jaws  of  a  devouring 
monster,  wherein  I,  palpitating,  waited  to  be 
devoured.  Full  of  such  humor,  and  perhaps  the 
miserablest  man  in  the  whole  French  Capital  or 
Suburbs,  was  I,  one  sultry  Dogday,  after  much  per- 
ambulation, toiling  along  the  dirty  little  Rue  Saint- 
Thomas  de  1'Enfer,  among  civic  rubbish  enough,  in 
a  close  atmosphere,  and  over  pavements  hot  as 
Nebuchadnezzar's  Furnace;  whereby  doubtless  my 
spirits  were  little  cheered;  when,  all  at  once,  there 
rose  a  Thought  hi  me,  and  I  asked  myself:  'What 
art  thou  afraid  of?  Wherefore,  like  a  coward,  dost 
thou  forever  pip  and  pimper,  and  go  cowering  and 
trembling?  Despicable  biped!  what  is  the  sum- 
total  of  the  worst  that  lies  before  thee?  Death? 
Well,  Death;  and  say  the  pangs  of  Tophet  too,  and 
all  that  the  Devil  and  Man  may,  will  or  can  do 
against  thee?  Hast  thou  not  a  heart;  canst  thou  not 
suffer  whatsoever  it  be;  and,  as  a  Child  of  Freedom, 
though  outcast,  trample  Tophet  itself  under  thy 
feet,  while  it  consumes  thee?  Let  it  come,  then; 
I  will  meet  it  and  defy  it!'  And  as  I  so  thought, 
there  rushed  like  a  stream  of  fire  over  my  whole  soul; 
and  I  shook  base  Fear  away  from  me  forever.  I 
was  strong,  of  unknown  strength ;  a  spirit,  almost  a 


44  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 

god.  Ever  from  that  time,  the  temper  of  my  misery 
was  changed;  not  Fear  nor  whining  Sorrow  was  it, 
but  Indignation  and  grim  fire-eyed  Defiance."16 

This  is  the  message  of  social  science.  Men  must 
learn  from  the  mistakes  that  other  men  have  made. 
They  must  advance  along  the  path  that  others  have 
indicated.  When  they  come  to  the  end  of  the 
beaten  path,  they  must  strike  out  a  path  for  them- 
selves, with  full  faith  and  confidence  in  the  results. 

Western  Democracy  is  on  trial.  Its  success  must 
depend  upon  the  temper  of  its  people. 

18  "Sartor  Resartus." 


MAMMON 

A  grim  portrayal  of  the  merciless  power  of  predatory  wealth,  which 
crushes  the  life  and  aspiration  of  mankind,  both  its  youth  and  its 
maidenhood.  (A  painting  by  George  Frederick  Watts.) 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

1.     The  Tool  Maker 

has  been  called  the  tool-making  and  tool- 
using  animal.  Among  living  creatures,  he 
alone  has  supplemented  his  powers  by  the  use 
of  tools.  The  tool  augments  man's  possibilities. 
"Without  tools,  he  is  nothing;  with  tools,  he  is  all," 
writes  Carlyle.  Ideas,  taking  shape  in  the  tool, 
have  placed  man  far  in  the  lead  of  his  competitors. 
Even  the  king  of  beasts  falls  an  easy  victim  to  his 
weapons. 

With  neither  defensive  armor  nor  offensive  powers, 
man,  without  tools,  must  rank  as  one  of  the  weakest 
of  earth's  inhabitants.  Armed  with  the  tool,  he  is 
able  to  place  all  living  things  under  his  domination. 
Nature  and  all  of  her  creatures  bow  before  the  tool- 
magic. 

The  kingdom  of  man  rests  upon  the  tool,  which, 
in  its  turn,  depends  upon  the  thumb,  the  forefinger 
and  the  forehead.  Among  all  the  animals,  none, 
except  man  and  the  man-like  apes,  can  place  the  end 
of  the  thumb  against  the  ends  of  all  of  the  fingers; 
therefore,  except  for  the  anthropoids,  no  animal  can 
make  or  successfully  use  a  tool.  This  mechanical 

(45) 


46       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

possibility,  guided  by  the  light  of  intelligence  that 
burns  in  the  frontal  lobe  of  the  brain,  organized  and 
co-ordinated  through  man's  reason,  has  built  civili- 
zation. 

The  tool  gives  man  his  power  over  the  universe. 
He  fashions  the  tool;  wields  it;  owns  it. 

A  sense  of  possession  goes  with  the  fashioning  of 
the  tool.  The  savage  who  hollowed  his  canoe  from 
the  log  or  chipped  the  flint  for  his  spear  head 
owned  the  thing  he  had  made.  It  was  his  because 
he  fashioned  it.  Men  love  the  work  of  their  hands, 
because  their  hands  have  done  the  work. 

The  man  who  wields  a  tool  feels  the  power  of  his 
mastery.  It  is  his.  Backed  by  the  strength  of  his 
arm  and  guided  by  the  light  of  his  brain,  it  pulsates 
to  its  task.  He  pushes,  swings,  pulls,  directs.  The 
tool  user  is  master  of  his  tool. 

Ownership  carries  with  it  a  sense  of  proprietorship. 
The  man  has  fashioned  and  wielded  the  tool.  He 
owns  it.  It  is  his.  The  title,  the  right  of  possession 
remains  in  the  man  to  whom  the  tool  belongs. 

The  power  of  the  tool,  backed  by  man's  master 
guidance,  is  the  title  to  his  kingdom.  He  has  the 
earth.  He  has  been  told  to  master  it  and  possess  it. 

2.     The  Tool  and  the  Machine 

The  modern  tool  is  the  machine.  Ever  since  the 
first  rude  wooden  spear  was  fashioned,  ever  since 
the  first  fish  bone  was  shaped  into  a  needle,  the  first 
clay  was  molded  into  a  bowl,  and  the  flint  was 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       47 

chipped  and  fitted  to  the  arrow;  from  the  most 
primitive  beginnings  down  to  the  present  day,  man 
has  been  perfecting  the  tool.  He  has  seen  in  it  new 
possibilities  and  dreamed  into  it  new  wonders  of 
invention. 

Only  yesterday,  the  man  made,  wielded  and  owned 
the  tool.  Today — what  transformation!  The  tool 
has  left  the  narrow  confines  of  its  age-long  prison 
and  appeared  in  its  true  form  as  a  machine. 

Between  the  tool  and  the  machine  there  is  this 
most  fundamental  difference.  The  tool  user  fash- 
ioned, wielded  and  owned  the  tool;  the  machine 
user  neither  fashions  nor  wields  his  machine.  Robert 
Burns  describes  the  cotter,  leaving  his  work  on 
Saturday  night.  He  "collects  his  spades,  his  mat- 
tocks and  his  hoes,"  throws  them  over  his  shoulder 
and  trudges  homeward.  How  unlike  this  is  the 
picture  presented  by  modern  industry.  Even  on  the 
farm,  in  these  last  few  years,  the  mattocks  and  hoes 
have  yielded  place  to  plows,  cultivators,  potato 
diggers,  seeders  and  a  host  of  other  horse-power 
machinery  that  performs  the  work  that  was  i  formerly 
the  product  of  the  cotter's  back  and  arms.  Carry 
the  parallel  one  step  further  and  make  it  in  terms 
of  industry.  "  Collects  his  electric  cranes,  loco- 
motive engines,  steam  rollers  and  blast  furnaces." 
The  words  bespeak  the  contrast. 

Electric  cranes,  locomotive  engines,  steam  rollers 
and  blast  furnaces  are  machines — intricate,  huge, 
costly.  They  are  the  product  of  an  age-long  evolu- 


48       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

tion  of  the  tool — but  they  are  more  than  the  tool. 
The  thumb,  forefinger  and  forehead  have  made  a 
being  that  is  alive  with  a  tireless,  superhuman 
power. 

The  machine  is  intricate.  No  man  can  make  all 
of  the  parts  or  engage  hi  all  of  the  processes  that  go 
to  the  construction  of  any  one  machine.  Men  do 
not  fashion  the  machines  they  use. 

The  machine  is  huge.  No  man  can  toss  it  upon 
his  shoulder  and  carry  it  to  his  cot.  No  man  can 
wield  it.  The  machine  is  not  carried  about  as  was 
the  tool,  from  place  to  place.  It  is  not  raised  or 
swung  or  wielded.  Instead  it  is  fixed  hi  a  place,  to 
which  the  man  comes  to  do  his  work. 

The  machine  is  costly.  No  man  can  own  the 
machinery  with  which  he  works.  First,  because  it 
is  too  expensive  for  each  man  to  own,  and  second, 
because  where  many  men  work  with  one  machine, 
like  a  locomotive,  if  one  should  own  it,  another 
would  necessarily  be  denied  ownership.  Aside  from 
collective  ownership,  there  is  no  possibility  for  the 
individual  to  own  the  machine. 

The  huge,  intricate,  costly  machine  cannot  be 
fashioned,  wielded  and  owned  by  the  man  who  uses 
it.  The  rail  mill  and  the  printing  press  differ 
essentially  from  the  smith's  hammer  and  the  pen. 
The  machine  is  a  super-tool — a  new  entity — for 
behind  it,  within  it,  driving  it  relentlessly,  are  the 
eternal  powers  of  nature  which  drive  the  universe. 
Jove's  lightnings  play  through  the  dynamos  and 


along  the  wires.    Water,  earth  and  air  concentrated 
in  the  machine,  toil  for  man. 

For  centuries  men  have  harnessed  the  wind  and 
the  water,  but  it  is  only  in  recent  years,  with  the 
development  in  iron  and  steel  making,  the  use  of 
coal,  the  steam  engine,  power-driven  machinery,  the 
turbine,  the  dynamo,  organic  chemistry  and  applied 
mechanics,  that  nature's  powers  have  been  called 
upon  to  render  effective  service.  When  at  last 
those  forces  were  utilized — when  nature  was  called 
upon  to  do  man's  work  hi  the  multitudinous  activities 
of  modern  industry,  the  tool  had  been  pushed  aside 
by  the  machine,  which,  from  that  time  forward,  was 
destined  to  heed  the  beck  and  call  of  the  human  race. 

3.     The  Possibilities  of  the  Machine 

The  machine  is  the  offspring  of  man's  genius  and 
nature's  power.  Is  it  to  be  a  ministering  angel?  Is 
it  to  be  a  Frankenstein  monster  of  destruction? 
Man  has  called  this  thing  into  being.  Can  he  control 
the  child  of  his  imagination?  the  creature  of  his 
hands?  The  thumb  and  forefinger  and  the  forehead 
have  created  a  new  being — the  machine.  They  have 
bent  nature  to  do  their  work.  Can  the  forehead 
still  rule  the  earth? 

During  untold  ages  mankind  has  struggled  against 
want  and  privation.  It  was  the  effort  to  escape  from 
this  struggle  that  called  the  machine  into  being. 

The  life  of  man  was  bitter.  In  the  jungle,  on  the 
plain,  under  the  mountain-side,  dependent  on  nature, 


50       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

i 

he  lived,  precariously,  from  hand  to  mouth,  warring 
continually  with  the  forces  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded; or  else,  a  unit  in  some  form  of  social 
organization,  he  earned  black  bread  and  a  pallet  of 
straw  through  unremitting  toil.  Conquest,  tribute, 
slavery,  serfdom  were  means  of  escape  which  raised  a 
few  above  the  crudities  of  the  wolf  struggle,  while  they 
ground  the  majority  of  mankind  into  dust.  Many 
slaves  lived  lives  of  hardship  and  subjection  in  order 
that  one  philosopher  might  make  excursions  into  the 
realms  of  metaphysics,  or  one  author  pen  his  lyrics. 

The  difficulties  hi  the  way  of  securing  a  living 
were  so  great!  The  odds  against  man  were  so 
stupendous!  It  took  so  much  human  energy  to 
raise  a  pitcher  of  water  or  a  bushel  of  wheat,  to 
fashion  a  sword  or  polish  a  cup,  that  a  full  day  of 
arduous  toil  produced  little  more  than  a  bare  living. 
It  was  only  when  many  men,  laboring  and  living  on 
a  very  little,  gave  the  surplus  of  their  production 
to  one  whom  they  called  " master,"  that  the  one 
man — the  master — had  freedom  and  leisure  to  think, 
speculate,  experiment. 

The  thinkers  believed  that  they  saw  a  great  future 
for  the  human  race.  Could  they  but  find  a  means 
of  multiplying  man's  power!  That  means  was  first, 
in  small  measure,  the  tool,  and  later,  in  immense 
proportion,  the  machine. 

The  machine  has  vanquished  that  most  ancient 
enemy  of  mankind — famine.  The  machine  has  made 
want  and  privation  eternally  unnecessary.  The 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       51 

industrial  regime  produces  enough  for  all.  No 
stomach  need  be  empty,  no  back  naked,  no  head 
shelterless.  The  machine  has  given  man  a  hundred 
hands  where  before  he  had  only  two.  Flour,  woolen 
yarn,  leather,  clapboards,  may  be  had  in  ample 
abundance.  If  each  man  will  do  only  a  moderate 
amount  of  labor,  the  people  of  every  country  that 
employs  machinery  would  be  provided  with  all  of 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

The  supply  of  these  necessaries  can  be  insured 
without  overwork.  There  is  no  need  for  a  twelve- 
hour  day.  The  users  of  machinery  may  be  well 
supplied  with  all  things  needful  to  life  with  a  few 
hours  work  each  day,  leaving  ample  time  for  the 
unfolding  of  the  human  spirit. 

Leisure  is  as  much  a  product  of  the  machine  as 
are  bread  and  shoes.  The  command,  "In  the  sweat 
of  thy  face  shalt  thou  earn  thy  bread"  is  so  mitigated 
by  the  powers  of  the  machine  that  men  may  earn  a 
generous  living  and  have  time  to  play  and  think  in 
the  same  number  of  hours  that  formerly  produced 
a  bare  subsistence. 

The  machine  augments  the  possibilities  of  life. 
By  multiplying  human  productive  power  it  increases 
the  number  of  things  that  man  may  have  at  the 
same  time  that  it  enlarges  his  possibility  of  leisure. 

4.     The  Fruits  of  the  Machine 

What  has  the  machine  done?  With  so  vast  a 
possibility  there  should  have  gone  some  measure  of 


52       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

achievements.  Machinery  has  multiplied  human 
productive  power.  Has  it,  at  the  same  tune,  aug- 
mented health  and  happiness? 

The  machine  has  led,  as  might  readily  have  been 
predicted,  to  the  piling  up  of  phenomenal  masses  of 
wealth.  Man's  productive  power  has  been  multi- 
plied by  marvelous  achievements.  New  resources 
are  utilized.  Old  ones  are  employed  to  better 
purpose.  New  methods,  improved  devices,  save 
labor,  tune  and  energy,  while  they  increase  output. 

The  change  hi  the  method  of  bread-baking  gives 
an  excellent  idea  of  the  advance  hi  productive 
efficiency.  Once  or  twice  each  week,  hi  the  old-tune 
home,  came  baking  day.  The  fire  was  tended,  the 
oven  made  hot,  and  the  dough,  raised  over  the 
previous  night,  was  kneaded,  cut  into  loaves  and  set 
into  the  pans..  The  housewife  baked  her  bread  with 
simple  hand  tools.  Even  when  the  baking  was  a 
complete  success  the  toil  was  severe.  But  the 
baking  was  not  always  a  complete  success;  failure 
was  frequent,  and  the  "bread  that  mother  used  to 
make"  was  frequently  heavy  and  unpalatable.  It  is 
hi  the  modern  bread  factory  that  bread-baking  is 
put  on  a  permanently  expert  basis. 

The  successful  factory  bakers  make  and  keep  on 
hand  a  good  supply  of  first-class  yeast.  This  yeast 
is  mixed  with  the  flour  and  other  ingredients  of  the 
bread  in  accordance  with  an  exact  formula  which 
represents  the  result  of  years  of  study  and  experi- 
ment. When  the  bread  is  ready  for  the  oven,  it  is 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       53 

brought  in  great  troughs  and  dumped  into  the 
hopper  of  the  bread  machine.  The  machine  first 
cuts  the  dough  into  proper-sized  loaves,  sprinkling 
flour  on  each  piece.  Then  these  loaves  pass  into  the 
part  of  the  machine  that  rolls,  kneads  and  shapes 
them.  They  are  then  dropped  into  the  pans,  which 
are  taken  by  an  endless  carrier  to  a  chamber  kept  at 
a  certain  temperature  where  the  dough  rises;  to  a 
second  and  third  chamber,  and  then  into  the  oven. 
After  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  the  oven  the 
bread  is  dropped  out,  perfectly  baked,  passed  into  a 
machine,  wrapped  in  paper  and  sent  out  to  the  trade. 
Nearly  two  hours  have  elapsed  since  the  bread  entered 
the  machine  as  dough.  During  that  time,  no  hand 
has  touched  it,  but,  hi  the  course  of  its  thousand-foot 
journey,  it  has  been  made  into  high-grade  bread,  in 
a  machine  tended  by  a  dozen  men  whose  sole  duty 
it  is  to  see  that  the  machine  does  its  work.  The 
housewife,  in  a  day's  baking  would  make  a  dozen 
loaves  of  bread.  This  machine  makes  fifty  thousand 
loaves  in  the  course  of  a  night. 

The  bread  machine  is  complex,  intricate,  huge, 
costly.  An  outlay  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  is 
necessary  to  install  one  machine;  but  once  at  work, 
under  proper  direction,  it  increases  the  productive 
power  of  human  energy  to  an  extent  that  is  almost 
unbelievable. 

The  bread  machine,  invented  and  perfected  by 
the  human  brain,  and  guided  by  the  human  hand, 
spells  plenty  for  the  sons  of  men.  If  gram  can  be 


54       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

raised  in  sufficient  quantities,  no  one,  henceforth, 
needs  to  suffer  for  lack  of  the  facilities  for  converting 
that  gram  into  a  usable  form. 

The  bread  machine  is  an  individual  unit  in  the 
productive  mechanism.  The  power  of  mechanical 
production  is  illustrated  even  more  strikingly  in 
great  unified  industries  that  have  sprung  into  being 
during  the  past  half  century.  Among  these,  none 
yields  more  wonderful  results  than  the  steel  industry. 

There  was  a  tune  when  iron  ore  was  dug  from  the 
ground  with  pick  and  shovel,  loaded  on  wagons, 
hauled  to  a  furnace,  and  after  an  immense  expendi- 
ture of  energy,  converted  into  pig  iron.  This  pig 
iron,  hi  turn,  was  reheated  and  made  into  some  form 
of  wrought  or  cast  iron  or  steel. 

The  modern  steel  industry  is  built  on  machinery. 
The  iron  ore  is  dug  from  the  Superior  mines  by  a 
steam  shovel,  thrown  on  cars  that  run  to  the  lake 
front  by  gravity,  dumped  into  pockets  that  shoot 
the  ore  directly  into  the  hold  of  the  ore  steamers 
which  carry  it  to  one  of  the  lower  lake  ports,  picked 
up  from  the  holds  of  the  steamers  by  great  grab- 
buckets  and  thrown  on  cars,  carried  to  the  blast 
furnace,  emptied  on  the  ore  dump,  shifted  by  an 
endless  conveyor  up  into  the  furnace,  and  there, 
with  coal  and  limestone,  under  a  forced  draft  of 
heated  gas  and  air,  made  into  molten  iron.  Without 
more  ado,  this  molten  iron  is  carried  to  the  con- 
verter, turned  to  steel,  poured  into  molds,  run  over 
to  the  rolling  mill,  passed  through  the  rolls,  and 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       55 

dropped  out  on  the  pile  as  a  finished  rail.  In  this 
whole  process,  from  the  ore  mine  to  the  rail  pile,  the 
lifting  and  carrying,  heating,  hammering  and  rolling 
has  been  done  by  machinery.  In  the  entire  process 
human  hands  have  played  no  direct  part.  Only 
with  lever,  switches  and  mechanical  devices,  they 
have  busied  themselves  hi  guiding  the  titanic  powers 
of  nature. 

Man's  hand  is  no  more  mighty  than  it  was  in  past 
ages,  but,  backed  by  the  tireless  energy  of  machinery, 
it  is  able,  with  but  a  slight  effort,  to  turn  out 
products  that  even  the  strength  and  cunning  of 
Seigfried  could  not  have  forged. 

The  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  tells  the  story 
in  figures.  Twelve-pound  packages  of  pins  can  be 
made  by  a  man  working  with  a  machine  in  1  hour 
34  minutes.  By  hand  the  work  would  take  140 
hours  55  minutes.  The  machine  is  ninety  times 
quicker  than  the  hand.  Furthermore,  "the  machine- 
made  pin  is  a  much  more  desirable  article  than  the 
hand-made"  "A  hundred  pairs  of  men's  medium 
grade,  calf,  welt,  lace  shoes,  single  soles,  soft  box 
toes,  by  machine  work  take  234  hours  26  minutes; 
by  hand  the  same  shoes  take  1,831  hours  40  min- 
utes.* The  labor  cost  on  the  machine  is  $69.55; 
by  hand,  it  is  $457.92.  Five  hundred  yards  of 
gingham  checks  are  made  by  machine  labor  hi  73 
hours;  by  hand  labor  in  5,844  hours.  One  hundred 
pounds  of  sewing  cotton  can  be  made  by  machine 
labor  in  39  hours;  by  hand  labor  in  2,895  hours. 


56       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

The  labor  costs  are  proportionate"  The  same  facts 
hold  true  of  agriculture.  A  good  man  with  a  scythe 
can  reap  one  acre  a  day;  a  good  reaper  and  binder 
does  the  same  work  in  20  minutes;  six  men  with  flails 
can  thresh  60  liters  of  wheat  in  half  an  hour.  One 
American  thresher  can  do  twelve  times  as  much 
(740  liters).  Commenting  on  these  and  similar 
figures,  the  government  report  states:  "The  in- 
creased effectiveness  of  man-labor,  aided  by  the  use 
of  machinery,, .  .  .  varies  from  150  per  cent,  in  the 
case  of  rye,  to  2,244  per  cent,  hi  the  case  of  barley. 
From  this  point  of  view,  a  machine  is  not  a  labor- 
saving  but  rather  a  product-making  device  .  .  .  . " 
This,  then,  is  the  machine — a  thing  conceived  by 
man's  inventive  genius  and  utilizing  nature's  power 
to  supply  human  needs.  The  machine  is  man's 
energy  and  strength,  multiplied  many  tunes. 

5.     The  Industrial  Revolution 

The  machine  is  the  unit  out  of  which  the  Indus- 
trial Re*gime  has  been  built.  The  process  of 
its  building  has  reconstructed  society.  Machine, 
factory,  plant,  city,  railroad,  financial  institution, 
are  the  steps  hi  the  evolution  that  has  produced  the 
Industrial  Regime. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  machine,  the  individual 
craftsman  was  the  unit  hi  industry.  He  could  make 
a  shoe,  a  hat,  a  piece  of  cloth,  from  the  raw  material 
to  the  finished  product.  Such  a  craftsman  single- 
handed  could  turn  out  industrial  products. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       57 


The  power-driven  machine  entered  the  field.  The 
craftsman  laid  aside  his  hand  tools,  left  the  home 
work  shop  and  went  into  the  factory.  The  step  was 
inevitable.  Power  was  the  essential  element  in  this 
new  type  of  industry,  and  power  could  be  used 
effectively  only  where  many  machines  were  brought 
together  under  one  roof.  The  factory  became  the 
new  unit  of  industry.  No  individual  worker  in  the 
factory  made  a  complete  product,  but  each  one, 
occupied  in  some  specialized  task,  worked,  under 
the  factory  management,  on  a  basis  of  division  of 
labor.  The  craftsman  disappeared,  because,  instead 
of  making  a  shoe,  he  was  tending  a  machine  that 
performed  one  small  operation  in  the  whole  process 
of  shoemaking. 

The  factory  began  as  a  small  affair,  employing  a 
few  score  persons.  It  has  grown  in  scope  until  it 
employed  hundreds  and  thousands.1  The  craftsman 

1  The  last  census  gives  a  table  showing  the  number  of  persons 
employed  in  the  factories  of  the  United  States  in  1910. 

TABLE  I. — WAGE-EARNERS  IN  THE  MANUFACTURING  INDUSTRIES, 
CLASSIFIED  BY  NUMBERS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS. 


Establishments 
Employing. 

Number  of 

Establishments 

Average 
Number  of 
Wage-Earners. 

Per  Cent  of  Total 

Establish- 
ment. 

Wage- 

Earners. 

5  wage-earners  or  less  — 
6—50  wage-earners  

164,001 
80,742 
10,964 
11,021 
1,223 
540 

311,704 
1,405,201 
782,298 
2,265,096 
837,473 
1,013,274 

61.1 
30.1 
4.1 
4.1 
0.5 
0.2 

4.7 
21.3 
11.8 
34.2 
12.7 
15.3 

51-100  wage-earners  
101-500  wage-earners  
501-1,000  wage-earners  .  . 
Over  1,000  wage-earners  . 

Total  

268,491 

6,615,046 

100.0 

100.0 

58       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

lived  at  home  in  a  small  village  or  town.  His  work- 
shop was  in  his  house  or  near  it.  There  was  no 
point  in  moving  to  town  for  work. 

The  factory  worker  leaves  his  home  and  goes  to 
the  factory.  He  cannot  live  too  far  away,  otherwise 
the  walking  is  impossible  in  bad  weather.  A  factory 
with  a  hundred  people  makes  a  village  of  three 
hundred  souls,  counting  families,  stores,  traders  and 
all.  Ten  such  factories  make  the  beginnings  of  a 
city.  One  large-sized  steel  works,  employing  ten 
thousand  men  requires  a  city  of  forty  thousand  to 
supply  it  with  workers.  The  growth  of  factories 
carries  with  it,  necessarily,  the  growth  of  cities. 

Then,  too,  industries  attract  industries.  Here  is 
a  center  of  shoe  manufacturing.  What  better  place 
for  the  establishment  of  a  plant  for  the  manufacture 
of  shoe-making  machinery?  The  machine  industry 
is  under  way,  and  the  demand  quickly  leads  to  the 
building  of  a  foundry.  Industry  draws  industry. 
The  village  becomes  a  city;  still  other  factories  come 
and  the  city  spreads  and  converts  the  neighboring 
farm  land  into  sites  for  factories  and  homes. 

The  city  is  making  shoes — a  hundred  times  as 
many  as  those  who  live  in  it  can  wear.  There  must 
be  some  means  of  disposing  of  them.  The  shoe 
jobbers  come  into  being.  The  shoes  must  be  shipped 
to  distant  parts  of  the  country.  The  railroad  plays 
its  part.  The  city  has  made  itself  indispensable  to 
a  hundred  other  cities,  by  making  shoes  for  their 
citizens. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       59 

Meanwhile,  the  people  of  the  city,  engaged  solely 
in  the  manufacture  of  shoes,  must  be  fed,  clothed, 
housed  and  educated.  To  do  this,  the  people  of  the 
hundred  other  cities  make  flour,  woolen  cloth,  furni- 
ture and  school  books,  and  exchange  with  the  people 
of  the  city  which  makes  shoes. 

The  factory  is  the  unit  of  production,  but  it  has 
built  up  a  new  social  unit — the  industrial  city.  The 
industrial  city,  depending  on  its  neighbors  for  an 
exchange  of  products,  becomes  a  unit  in  the  indus- 
trial community.  The  railroads,  telegraphs  and 
telephones  tie  the  community  together.  State 
bounderies  and  national  lines  alike  become  super- 
fluous. The  people  of  the  world  have  been  joined 
by  their  interdependent  industrial  activity. 

The  machine  created  the  factory;  the  factory 
urbanized  the  village;  the  railroad  bound  together 
the  scattered  units  into  a  closely  knit  community. 

There  is  another  factor,  not  yet  considered,  which 
is  of  the  utmost  importance.  While  the  machine 
was  creating  the  structure  of  modern  industrial 
society,  the  business  world  was  occupied  in  securing 
a  control  over  it. 

The  steps  in  the  establishment  of  business  control 
were  logical  and  inevitable.  First  the  factory,  with 
its  mechanical  power  and  simple  division  of  industry, 
was  made  the  unit  hi  large  scale  industry.  A  man 
no  longer  controlled  a  factory.  Instead,  he  had  a 
"plant,"  or  several  factories.  In  modern  parlance, 
he  had  a  " battery"  or  a  "brigade"  of  factories, 


60       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

each  one  of  which  played  its  part  in  the  work  of  the 
entire  establishment.  Then  the  plant  was  made  the 
unit  hi  an  integrated  industry — that  is,  an  industry 
that  controlled  all  of  the  stages  of  production  from 
the  raw  to  the  finished  product. 

These  steps  hi  industrial  organization  may  be 
illustrated  from  the  steel  industry.  A  man  has  a 
mill  hi  which  he  makes  bar  iron.  He  decides  to  add 
a  mill  in  which  bar  steel  is  made  and  another  mill  in 
which  structural  steel  is  made.  These  three  separate 
factories,  built  together,  make  up  a  plant.  A  larger 
idea  is  conceived.  Iron  mines,  coal  mines,  coke 
ovens,  railroads,  blast  furnaces  and  steel  converters 
are  all  bought  up  by  one  group  of  interests  and 
integrated  with  the  bar  and  structural  steel  mills. 
The  same  industry  now  includes  all  of  the  steps  in 
the  production  of  steel  from  the  ore  hi  the  mines  to 
the  finished  structural  steel. 

This  represents  the  contribution  of  the  organizers 
of  industry.  Now  there  come  the  organizers  of 
finance,  first  with  combination  and  then  with 
"spheres  of  influence,"  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  the 
language  of  diplomacy. 

The  combination  is  a  union  of  similar  industries. 
A  number  of  steel  industries  had  secured  control  of 
their  raw  material.  These  industries  were  merged 
in  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  which  was 
one  of  the  many  combinations,  or  "trusts"  as  they 
were  popularly  called,  that  combined  like  industries. 
There  were  the  sugar,  oil,  steel,  plate-glass,  harvester 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       61 

and  many  other  combinations,  each  in  greater  or 
less  control  of  a  given  industry. 

Then  the  financial  world  took  its  last  step  in  the 
organization  of  the  Industrial  Regime,  by  bringing 
together  unlike  industries. 

The  process  was  colossal  but  simple.  The  prime 
essential  was  a  group  of  banks,  trust  companies  and 
insurance  companies  that  would  provide  the  neces- 
sary money  and  credit.  With  this  financial  backing 
as  a  basis,  great  integrated  industries,  trusts,  com- 
bination of  industries,  railroads  and  municipal 
utilities  were  brought  under  the  same  "control" 
or  "  sphere  of  influence."  They  were  not  bought 
outright.  Fifty-one  per  cent  of  the  stock  gives 
absolute  control.  But  even  stock  purchase  on  a 
large  scale  was  not  necessary.  Often  adequate 
representation  on  the  board  of  directors  was  the 
only  thing  needful. 

The  power  of  the  Rockefeller  interests  and  the 
Morgan  interests  is  built  in  that  way.  It  is  neither 
a  "trust"  nor  a  combination,  but  a  co-ordination  of 
all  of  the  elements  in  the  industrial  and  financial 
world,  under  the  control  of  one  small  group  of 
individuals,  or  even  around  one  powerful  individual. 

This  is  the  Industrial  Regime,  and  the  small 
coterie  of  men  who  are  at  the  center  of  financial 
control  exercise  whatever  dominion  is  exercised  over 
its  affairs.  Power,  control,  rule,  government — 
which  word  must  be  used  to  characterize  the  part 
played  in  the  affairs  of  the  community  by  these  few 


62       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 


mighty  ones,  in  whose  hands  there  is  concentrated 
the  influence  over  so  vast  a  field? 

6.     The  Growth  of  Riches 

The  machine  multiplies  man's  productive  power. 
The  co-ordination  of  industrial  units  leads  to  in- 
creased efficiency.  Then  the  past  half  century  of 
machine  industry  and  of  industrial  organization, 
combination  and  concentration  should  have  wit- 
nessed a  great  increase  in  wealth. 

The  records  of  wealth-increase  during  the  years 
that  they  are  available  almost  pass  belief.  Many 
thinking  men  believed,  in  1860,  that  the  high  point 
in  productive  efficiency  had  been  reached.  Since 
that  time,  the  wealth  of  the  United  States,  as  esti- 
mated by  the  census  officials,  has  increased  twelve- 
fold. 

TABLE  II. — THE  TOTAL  WEALTH  AND  TOTAL  POPULATION  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  1850-1912.2 


Total  Wealth. 

Per  Capita  Wealth. 

Total  Population. 

1850  

$7,135,780,000 

$308 

23,191,876 

1860  

16,159,616,000 

514 

31,443,321 

1870  

30,068,518,000 

780 

38,558,371 

1880  

43,642,000,000 

870 

50,155,783 

1890  

65,037  091,000 

1,036 

62,947,714 

1900  

88,517,307,000 

1,165 

75,994,575 

1904  

107,104,202,000 

1,318 

82,466,551 

1912  

187,739,071,000 

1,965 

95,410,503 

The  wealth  of  the  country  in  1850  was  a  little  more 
than  seven  billions.      By  1912  it  had  risen  to  a 

2  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States,  1914,  p.  628. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       63 

hundred  and  eighty-seven  billions.  Although  the 
population  was  only  about  four  times  as  great  in 
1912  as  it  was  in  1850  the  total  wealth  of  the  country 
was  twenty-five  tunes  as  great.  From  the  time 
when  the  earliest  settlers  landed,  and  when  the 
wealth  of  the  country  was  practically  zero,  for  two 
centuries,  the  hand  of  man  delving  into  nature's 
storehouse  had  raised  the  wealth  of  the  country  to 
seven  billions.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  wealth 
figures  do  not  run  back  to  1800,  for  then,  when  there 
was  no  machine  industry  the  true  progress  of  man, 
aided  by  the  tool,  might  have  been  seen.  Ignoring 
this,  however,  and  assuming  that  the  years  up  to 
1850  were  tool-using  years,  the  wealth  increase 
brought  about  since  that  tune  is  little  short  of 
marvelous. 

The  immense  increase  in  the  total  wealth  has  its 
parallel  in  the  increase  in  the  per  capita  wealth. 
The  wealth  of  the  country  per  person  was  three 
hundred  dollars  hi  1850  and  almost  two  thousand 
dollars  in  1912.  This  does  not  mean  that  each  of 
the  people  in  the  country  had  that  much  wealth  in 
1912.  Far  from  it!  It  simply  means  that  if  the 
total  wealth  of  the  country  is  divided  by  the  total 
population,  the  result  shows  more  than  six  times  as 
much  wealth  per  person  in  1912  than  there  was  in 
1850. 

The  machine  has  infinite "  possibilities.  It  has 
fulfilled  its  promise  by  creating  immense  masses  of 
wealth.  The  machine  has  done  what  it  was  expected 


64       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

to  do.  There  remains  man,  the  creator  of  the 
machine,  and  the  relations  that  have  sprung  up 
between  the  creator  and  the  creature  of  his  creative 
power. 

7.    Man — the  Machine  Tender 

The  machine  has  converted  man  the  tool  user  into 
man  the  machine  tender.  Markham's  "Man  with 
the  Hoe"  was  master  of  his  tool.  " Bowed  with 
the  weight  of  centuries,  he  leans  upon  his  hoe  and 
gazes  on  the  ground."  Yet,  when  his  contemplation 
was  over,  he  could  shoulder  the  hoe  and  take  it 
home.  He  could  wield  it,  repair  it,  duplicate  it. 
It  belonged  to  him. 

Man,  the  tool  user,  could  fashion,  wield  and  own 
his  tool.  Not  so,  man  the  machine  tender.  He  is 
brought  face  to  face  with  giant  forces  and  mighty 
mechanisms.  The  tools  of  industry  are  no  longer 
stored  away  beside  the  peasant's  cot.  Instead  they 
are  kept  in  the  factories  and  plants  where  the  work 
of  the  world  is  now  done. 

The  tap-tap  of  the  home  workshop  has  been 
replaced  by  the  roar  of  the  modern  workshop — the 
industrial  world.  The  vast  mechanical  devices, 
symbols  of  man's  ascending  power,  speak  hi  sten- 
torian tones  the  watchword  of  the  modern  world. 

Many  people  have  attempted  to  interpret  the 
language  of  the  machine.  None  have  succeeded 
better  than  did  Giovannitti,  when  he  wrote  of  the 
"furious  song  of  human  toil."  "Whirred  the  wheels 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       65 

of  the  puissant  machines,  rattled  and  clanked  the 
chains  of  the  giant  cranes,  crashed  the  falling  rocks, 
the  riveters  crepitated  and  glad  and  sonorous  was 
the  rhythm  of  the  bouncing  hammers  upon  the  loud- 
throated  anvils. 

c  "Like  the  chests  of  wrathfully  toiling  Titans, 
heaved  and  sniffed  and  panted  the  sweaty  boilers, 
like  the  hissing  of  dragons  sibilated  the  jets  of  steam, 
and  the  sirens  of  the  workshops  shrieked  like  angry 
hawks  flapping  above  the  crags  of  a  dark  and  fathom- 
less chasm. 

»  "The  files  shrieked  and  the  trains  thundered,  the 
wires  hummed,  the  dynamos  buzzed,  the  fires 
crackled;  and  like  a  thunderclap  from  the  cyclopean 
forge  roared  the  blasts  of  the  mines. 

"Wonderful  and  fierce  was  the  mighty  symphony 
of  the  world,  as  the  terrible  voices  of  metal  and  fire 
and  water  cried  out  into  the  listening  ears  of  the  gods 
the  furious  song  of  human  toil."3 

The  tool  was  wielded  by  the  man  who  used  it, 
but  these  thundering,  puissant  machines  dominate 
the  human  beings  who  tend  them.  They  are 
energized  with  an  everlasting  power.  They  are 
tireless  and  wholly  without  pity.  They  make  the 
pace  which  the  man  and  woman  who  work  with 
them  must  follow. 

I  Here  is  a  plant  hi  which  they  are  packing  pork 
and  beans.  The  cans,  filled  with  beans  pass  close 


•Arrows   in   the   Gale.     "The    Cage."     Arturo   Giovannitti, 
Hillacre  Bookhouse,  Riverside,  Conn. 


66       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

before  you,  fixed  on  an  endless  carriage.  As  each 
can  passes,  you  must  slip  a  piece  of  pork  in  it; 
Failure  means  loss  of  wages  or  even  loss  of  job. 
The  machine  is  geared  high.  The  cans  move 
rapidly,  and  ten  hours  each  day  you  devote  to  the 
endless  task  of  getting  a  piece  of  pork  in  every  can 
of  beans  that  passes  over  your  table. 

You  sit  down  before  a  sewing  machine  that  is  run 
by  electric  power.  You  are  putting  the  main  seams 
in  overalls.  You  reach  over  to  the  left  of  the 
machine,  seize  the  two  parts  that  are  to  be  sewed 
together,  place  them  side  by  side,  push  them  under 
the  needle,  throw  on  the  power,  and  for  a  moment 
the  needle  tears  across  the  fabric  at  the  speed  of  two 
thousand  revolutions  a  minute.  The  piece  is  done; 
you  break  it  from  the  thread,  throw  it  into  a  box  on 
the  right  of  the  machine,  snatch  two  other  pieces  of 
goods  and  go  on  with  the  work  as  before.  You  are 
paid  for  the  work  at  a  piece  rate  that  is  set  at  a  point 
which  will  enable  you  to  make  a  living  if  you  are 
quick  and  persistent  at  your  task.  There  is  no 
danger  that  you  will  loiter,  for  behind  you,  driving 
you  to  constant  exertion  are  the  want  and  hardship 
that  go  with  low  wages  and  perhaps  the  loss  of  a  job. 

You  work  in  a  packing  house,  in  the  department 
where  the  sheep  are  skinned.  The  carcass  of  the 
animal  is  swung  up  on  a  hook  that  grips  an  endless 
carriage  that  is  geared  to  move  at  a  certain  pace. 
The  carcasses  come  slowly  down  the  side  of  the 
room  where  you  stand.  As  each  one  passes  you, 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       67 

you  must  reach  out,  seize  the  fore-leg,  slit  the  hide 
around  the  knuckle,  and  pull  it  back,  ready  to  be 
torn  away  from  the  leg  by  the  man  next  to  you. 
You  do  that  twice  on  each  carcass,  and  by  the  time 
you  have  finished  with  one  carcass,  another  has  been 
brought  to  you  by  the  endless  carriage. 

There  are  perhaps  fifty  men  engaged  in  the  one 
occupation  of  taking  the  hide  from  a  sheep.  Each 
man's  task  is  cut  out  for  him.  The  speed  at  which 
he  must  do  his  work  is  fixed  by  the  speed  at  which 
the  machine  brings  the  carcasses  down  the  side  of 
the  room.  That  speed  is  so  arranged  that  everyone 
is  kept  busy  most  of  the  tune. 

There  is  a  boy  doing  piece  work.  He  sits  in  front 
of  a  revolving  table,  putting  nuts  onto  bolts.  He 
picks  up  a  nut,  places  it  upside  down  on  the  table; 
picks  up  a  bolt,  presses  it  against  the  revolving  nut, 
which  passes  up  on  the  thread  of  the  bolt;  picks  up 
another  nut,  places  it  upside  down  on  the  revolving 
table ;  picks  up  a  bolt  and  presses  it  against  the  nut ; 
picks  up  another  nut,  threads  it  on  a  bolt,  and  so 
on  through  the  twelve  hours  of  his  "shift."  If  he 
is  quick,  he  can  finish  about  eight  hundred  bolts  an 
hour.  He  receives  ten  cents  a  thousand  for  the 
work. 

This  man  is  fastening  the  spokes  into  the  iron 
eyelet  that  forms  one  side  of  the  hub  of  a  baby 
coach.  He  reaches  for  an  eyelet,  slips  it  to  its  place 
on  the  die,  brings  two  pieces  of  bent  wire  that  are 
to  be  the  spokes  and  drops  them  into  place  with  his 


68       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

right  hand,  drops  a  third  piece  of  wire  in  place 
with  his  left  hand,  presses  a  treadle  with  his  foot; 
the  machine  drops  a  die  that  fastens  the  six  spokes 
securely  into  the  eyelet;  the  man  throws  the  com- 
pleted work  on  a  pile,  reaches  for  another  eyelet  and 
repeats  the  process.  There  are  seven  hand  motions 
and  one  foot  motion  required  for  each  operation. 
The  experienced  operator  turns  out  20  pieces  a 
minute;  1,200  pieces  an  hour,  10,000  pieces  a  day. 
In  a  week  this  machine  tender  repeats  his  series  of 
eight  motions  from  50,000  to  60,000  times.  What  a 
prospect,  at  one  week  end,  to  contemplate  for  the 
coming  week — fifty  thousand  repetitions  of  an  habit- 
ual action!  It  is  the  price  this  man  must  pay  for  his 
daily  bread. 

The  soul  that  should  expand  through  the  creative 
effort  of  craftsmanship;  the  mind  that  should  be 
occupied  with  the  educative  processes  of  constructive 
work;  the  hand  that  should  be  trained  to  follow  the 
behests  of  the  soul  and  obey  the  directions  of  the 
mind;  the  stream  of  the  man's  consciousness — his 
whole  being  are  prostituted  to  eight  motions  re- 
peated, repeated,  repeated  until  the  imagination 
grows  dizzy,  as  hi  the  contemplation  of  infinity,  with 
the  difference  that  here  it  is  affrighted  by  an  infinity 
of  littlenesses. 

The  tool  user  made  his  tool,  wielded  it  and  owned 
it.  The  machine  tender  is  using  a  machine  made  by 
other  workers  in  highly  specialized  factories.  He  no 
longer  wields  the  tool.  Instead,  leaving  his  home, 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       69 

he  goes  to  the  place  where  the  tool  is,  to  work  with 
it  there.  As  an  individual,  the  tool  user  cannot  own 
the  machine  that  he  uses.  One  machine — a  blast 
furnace,  for  example — is  used  by  many  men,  and  is 
useless  unless  many  men  use  it.  The  machine  is  a 
social  tool — depending  for  its  efficacy  upon  the 
co-operation  of  many  people. 

The  machine  is  social  in  nature,  as  the  tool  was 
individual.  Many  men  work  with  the  machine. 
If  one  man  be  permitted  to  own  it,  he  has  a  potent 
advantage  over  his  fellows  which  may  enable  him  to 
dictate  to  them  the  terms  under  which  they  shall 
work,  and  to  compel  them  to  pay  him  a  part  of  the 
product  of  their  labor  because  he  owns  the  machine. 
They  must  make  a  living.  That  means,  nowadays, 
that  they  must  work  with  machinery.  The  machine 
owner  has  an  advantage  because  he  owns  the  means 
of  another's  livelihood.  His  exercise  of  that 
advantage  is  called  exploitation. 

The  feudal  lord  exploited  his  tenants  through  his 
ownership  of  their  means  of  livelihood — the  fertile 
land.  The  modern  world  depends  for  its  living  upon 
machinery  instead  of  upon  agricultural  land,  and 
therefore  the  owner  of  machinery  is  in  a  position 
similar  to  that  of  the  land  owner  in  feudal  Europe. 

The  tool  user  was  master  of  his  tool.  He  could 
wield  it.  It  was  his.  The  machine  tender  cannot 
wield  his  machine.  Instead,  he  gears  himself  to 
meet  the  pace  which  the  machine  sets. 

There  is  something  fundamentally  vicious  about 


70       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

this  process  of  setting  the  man  to  keep  the  pace  of 
the  machine.  The  tool  user  worked  according  to 
his  own  volition.  When  he  struck  a  blow  with  his 
hammer,  he  did  so  because  he  wished  to  strike. 
His  emotions  and  his  will  were  guiding  principles. 
He  was  a  free  man! 

The  machine  tender  does  his  work  hi  time  with 
the  machine.  He  must  accept  its  pace  and  follow 
its  lead  if  he  is  to  keep  his  job.  He  is  under  coercion 
by  the  machine. 

Those  who  insist  on  liberty  and  resent  despotism 
may  see  hi  the  machine  a  means  of  coercion  that 
surpasses  all  of  its  predecessors  in  effectiveness  and 
finality. 

8.     Caught  in  the  Levers  and  Cogs 

The  man  who  takes  a  place  in  the  modern  Indus- 
trial Regime  becomes  a  unit  in  a  highly  organized 
system.  He  is  a  unit,  an  unessential  unit,  because 
he  can  be  easily  replaced.  He  is  working  under  the 
direction  of  a  great  industry.  There  is  little  contact 
between  the  men  at  the  top  and  the  men  down 
below. 

The  stops  and  gears  are  set.  The  machine  is 
started.  To  paraphrase  Lord  Nelson,  "Machinery 
expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty."  His  work  is 
cut  out  for  him. 

This  relation  between  the  individual  and  the 
Industrial  Regime  led  G.  Lowes  Dickenson  to  write 
in  his  "Letters  from  John  Chinaman,"4  "Your 

4  London:  R.  Bromley  Johnson,  1903. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       71 

capital  is  alive,  and  cries  for  food;  starve  it  and  it 
turns  and  throttles  you.  You  produce,  not  because 
you  will,  but  because  you  must"  (p.  14).  "You 
have  liberated  forces  you  cannot  control;  you  are 
caught  yourselves  in  your  own  levers  and  cogs. 
In  every  department  of  business  you  are  substituting 
for  the  individual  the  company,  for  the  workman 
the  tool"  (pp.  13-14). 

There  is  much  justification  for  this  charge.  The 
human  race  has  been  extensively  victimized  by  its 
industrial  forces.  Instances  may  be  picked  up, 
almost  at  random,  of  the  manner  in  which  industrial 
tyranny  manifests  itself. 

At  times  the  work  which  is  done  by  the  machine 
tender  is  long  continued  as  well  as  arduous.  The 
steel  industry  is  still  on  a  basis  of  very  long  working 
hours.  The  investigators  who  made  their  report 
in  19125  found  that  "  during  May,  1910,  the  period 
covered  by  this  investigation,  50,000,  or  29  per  cent, 
of  the  173,000  employees  of  blast  furnaces  and  steel 
works  and  rolling  mills  covered  by  this  report,  cus- 
tomarily worked  seven  days  a  week,  and  20  per  cent  of 
them  worked  84  hours  or  more  per  week,  which,  in 
effect,  means  a  twelve-hour  working  day  every  day  in 
the  week,  including  Sunday.  The  evil  of  seven- 
day  work  is  particularly  accentuated  by  the  fact, 
developed  in  the  investigation,  that  the  seven-day 
working  week  was  not  confined  to  the  blast  furnace 


5  Report  on  Conditions  of  Employment  in  Iron  and  Steel  Industry, 
62d  Congress,  2d  Session,  Senate  Doc.  301,  pp.  8-10. 


72       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

department,  where  there  is  a  metallurgical  necessity 
for  continuous  operations,  and  in  which  department 
88  per  cent  of  the  employees  worked  seven  days  a 
week;  but  it  was  also  found  that,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  in  other  departments  where  no  such  metal- 
lurgical necessity  can  be  claimed,  productive  work 
was  carried  on  on  Sunday  just  as  on  other  days  in 
the  week.  .  .  . 

"The  hardship  of  a  twelve-hour  day  and  a  seven- 
day  week  is  still  further  increased  by  the  fact  that 
every  week  or  two  weeks,  as  the  case  may  be,  where 
the  employees  on  the  day  shift  are  transferred  to 
the  night  shift,  and  vice  versa,  employees  remain 
on  duty  without  relief  either  18  or  24  consecutive 
hours.  .  .  . 

"Even  hi  the  blast  furnace  department,  where 
there  is  a  metallurgical  necessity  for  continuous 
operation  day  and  night  throughout  seven  days  of 
the  week,  there  is  practically  nothing  except  the 
desire  to  economize  in  the  expense  of  production 
that  has  prevented  the  introduction  of  a  system 
that  would  give  each  employee  one  day  of  rest  out 
of  seven. 

"Approximately  14  per  cent  of  the  173,000 
employees  work  less  than  60  hours  per  week  and 
almost  43  per  cent  work  72  hours  or  over  per  week." 

The  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission 
reports  frequent  instances  where  long-continued 
labor  is  required  even  of  women.6  In  one  case  that 

"Report  of  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission, 
January  15,  1913,  p.  242. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       73 

is  on  record,  a  girl  of  twenty-three  worked  in  a 
magazine  bindery  from  8.30  A.  M.  until  5.30  the 
next  morning.  "She  was  employed  to  fill  the  boxes 
of  a  gathering  machine  in  a  magazine  bindery. 
She  worked  from  8.30  A.  M.  until  5.30  p.  M.  with  a 
half  hour  at  noon.  She  began  again  at  6.30  P.  M. 
and  worked  until  midnight.  After  a  recess  of  thirty 
minutes  she  continued  her  day's  task  until  5.30A.M." 
On  the  next  page  the  report  continues :  "The  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  in  its  report  upon  wage- 
earning  women  confirms  our  foregoing  assertion  of 
the  existence  of  these  excessive  hours  of  labor  of 
women  in  bookbinderies.  In  one  bookbinding 
establishment  in  New  York  City  agents  of  the 
government  found  girls  employed  overtime  from 
16  to  24^  continuous  hours,  once  and  sometimes 
twice  a  week,  during  a  period  of  from  sixteen  to 
twenty-four  weeks." 

Here  is  the  testimony  of  the  manager  of  one  New 
York  canning  factory: 

"Q.  According  to  your  time  sheet  which  you  have 
produced  of  July  10,  1912,  which  is  Wednesday, 
Mrs.  D.  began  work  at  6.45  in  the  morning  that 
day.  Is  that  right?  A.  Yes. 

"Q.  And  she  finished  at  2.30  the  following  morn- 
ing? A.  Yes. 

"Q.  Working  19%  hours?  A.  Of  course  she  had 
one-half  hour  out  for  lunch  and  supper  that  we 
gave  her.  .  .  . 

"Q.  You  produce  the  tune  sheet  for  the  date  of 


74       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

July  11,  1912,  and  I  find  the  same  Mrs.  D. — that  is 
the  same  one,  is  it?    A.   Yes;  16  hours. 

"Q.  And  she  began  that  morning  at  a  quarter  of 
seven  and  stopped  at  12  o'clock,  and  she  began 
at  one  o'clock — that  was  her  lunch  hour?  A.  Yes; 
she  had  an  hour  out. 

"Q.  You  didn't  pay  for  that  hour?     A.   No. 

"Q.  Then  she  stopped  at  six  and  started  at  seven; 
you  didn't  pay  for  that  hour?    A.   No. 
-    "Q.    She  stopped  at  quarter  of  one  hi  the  morn- 
ing?    A.    Yes,  sir."7 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  work  of  the  machine 
tender  that  cannot  escape  mention.  The  machine 
does  not  need  sleep  at  night.  It  is  as  tireless  on  a 
twenty-hour  day  as  it  is  on  a  ten-hour  day. 
Consequently  the  factories  and  mills  frequently 
work  both  by  day  and  by  night.  The  time  when 
the  poet  can  find  the  world  asleep  never  comes  in 
a  great  center  of  industry  and  commerce.  All 
night  long  the  trains  move  back  and  forth,  the  glow 
of  the  glass  factories  and  of  the  steel  mills  red- 
dens the  night;  and  all  night  long  men  go  to  and 
from  the  never-ending  work  of  the  world.  Ours  is 
a  twenty-hour  civilization. 

Certain  industries  have  an  excuse  for  night  work. 
The  cessation  of  activity  leads  to  a  heavy  loss  of 
the  product.  Other  industries  work  at  night  because 
it  pays  better. 


7  Report  of  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission  January 
15,  1913,  p.  244. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       75 

The  New  York  Commission  has  a  great  deal  to  say 
about  the  work  of  women  at  night  in  New  York 
State.  Writing  of  the  night  shift  in  a  twine  works, 
the  Commission  says:  "Most  of  the  women  on  the 
night  shift  are  married.  The  appearance  of  the 
women  workers  is  very  disheartening.  They  are 
stolid,  worn  looking  and  pale.  •  Their  clothes,  faces 
and  hands  are  covered  with  oil  and  hemp  dust."8 
"Among  100  of  these  women,  80  were  between 
twenty  and  thirty  years  of  age;  62  of  the  hundred 
were  anemic.  All  of  the  operatives  worked  stand- 
ing. .  .  .  Dust  is  the  predominating  evil.  .  .  . 
There  is  considerable  dust  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
mill.  ...  It  fills  the  preparing  room  where  the 
hemp  bales  are  opened  and  the  hemp  prepared.  .  .  . 
The  dust  hi  this  department  is  so  thick  that  the 
clothes  and  caps  of  the  women  are  completely 
covered  with  it."9 

The  work  is  surrounded  by  discomfort.  "The 
clatter  of  the  machinery  here  is  so  frightful  that  a 
voice  can  hardly  be  heard  below  a  shriek.  .  .  .  The 
spinning  room  in  the  basement  is  eight  or  nine  feet 
high.  .  .  .  The  watchman  says  that  on  very  hot 
nights  the  temperature  on  the  top  floor  is  108°  F."1 

The  reports  of  severe  working  conditions  come 
from  industries  that  employ  men  as  well  as  women. 


8  Report  of  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission,  January 
15,  1913,  p.  235. 

•  Ibid.,  pp.  237-38. 
»/6id.,  p.  238. 


Here  is  a  description  from  the  steel  industry  :n  "  Their 
first  working  position  is  the  cupola-charging  floor, 
upon  which  the  men  who  handle  the  raw  materials 
for  the  cupola  work.  When  the  outside  temperature 
was  81  degrees,  the  temperature  of  the  charging 
floor  was  117  degrees,  to  which  temperature  the 
men  were  subjected  during  the  whole  of  their 
twelve-hour  turn,  except  for  the  short  periods, 
totaling  approximately  three  hours,  in  which  they 
were  free  to  rest.  While  resting,  they  were  still  hi  a 
temperature  of  104  degrees."  After  giving  a 
description  of  the  various  other  occupations,  the 
report  continues:  "As  will  be  seen  from  the  records 
of  actual  readings,  the  men  in  testing  and  working 
the  heat  and  in  repairing  the  furnaces  are  exposed 
to  this  terrific  heat  of  upwards  of  150  degrees. 
This  exposure  lasts  but  a  short  time,  it  is  true,  but 
the  heat  is  exhausting  even  under  the  best  of  condi- 
tions. The  best  conception  of  the  conditions  during 
this  work  is  given  by  the  following  notes  of  one  of 
the  agents  of  the  Bureau: 

'  'Heat  conditions  and  amount  of  work  done  in 
making  bottom.  .  .  .  Began  work  at  South  end 
at  2  P.  M.  Work  as  follows:  Four  men  pass  in 
regular  order  to  dolomite  pile  12  feet  from  furnace, 
get  shovelful  of  dolomite  (20  pounds),  walk  to 
furnace  door,  pause  to  see  where  material  is  needed, 
throw  in  shovelful  of  dolomite,  walk  back  to  pile.  .  . 

11  "Conditions  of  Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry.'' 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  Government  Printing  Office,  1913.  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  304-13. 


WORKROOMS  OF  THE  POOR  AND  THE  RICH 
Men  in  a  Pittsburgh  Steel  Mill  are  shown  in  the  upper  picture. 
running  a  500  pound  lump  of  white-hot  metal  from  the  furnace  to 
the  hammer.  (Hine  Photo  Co.)  Their  working  conditions  are  not 
so  pleasant  as  those  of  the  multi-millionaire  whose  private  office  is 
shown  below.  Here  the  sound-proof  walls  are  panelled  with  rare 
woods.  The  furnishings  are  simple  but  costly  and  luxurious. 
(Courtesy  of  "System.") 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       77 

Work  regularly,  but  without  hurry;  each  man 
averages  four  shovelfuls  in  three  minutes.  Exposed 
to  extremely  high  temperature  constantly.  Gunny 
sacks  containing  magnesite,  12  to  14  feet  from 
furnace,  smoking  constantly.  One  caught  fire  and 
blazed  up.  Men  were  in  this  zone  during  entire 
time  they  were  at  work.  Finished  at  South  end 
2.09  p.  M.  Rested  six  minutes  on  bench  back  of 
charging  track.  .  .  .  All  young  men  at  this  plant.' 
The  recorded  temperature  under  which  these  men 
were  at  work  was  220  degrees  plus.  Water  boils 
at  212  degrees." 

The  machine  is  exacting,  implacable.  Long 
hours  and  high  temperatures  are  to  it  a  matter  of 
utter  indifference.  The  machine  works  by  night  and 
by  day  under  conditions  that  are  humanly  impos- 
sible, yet  human  beings  are  asked  to  keep  the  pace 
which  the  machine  sets. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  discomforts  that 
surround  the  work  of  machine  tenders.  No  mention 
has  been  made  of  the  more  vicious  features  of 
machine  tending,  which  are  an  incidental  and  not  an 
integral  element  of  industrial  life.  The  high  acci- 
dent rate  and  the  industrial  diseases  so  prevalent  in 
some  industries  have  in  many  cases  been  caused  or 
intensified  by  the  coming  of  the  machine;  nothing 
has  been  said  of  the  child  labor  that  the  machine 
has  made  possible.  Rather,  it  has  been  the  aim  to 
show  that  the  machine  is  a  pacemaker,  shod  with 
seven-league  boots;  a  taskmaster,  relentless  and 


78       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

implacable.  Monotony,  speed,  intensity,  strain,  all 
are  incident  to  work  in  which  the  rate  is  set  by  the 
power  of  the  machine  rather  than  by  the  ability  of 
a  worker  to  keep  the  pace. 

The  machine  is  the  dominant  factor  in  industry. 
It  is  expensive;  it  must  be  used  to  its  full  capacity; 
it  is  made  to  turn  out  product — take  these  things 
together,  and  the  worker  finds  himself  serving  the 
machine — caught  in  the  levers  and  cogs. 

9.     Worker  and  Product 

The  hand-craft  worker,  using  the  tool,  had 
received  an  education  in  his  trade.  Apprenticeship 
was  an  efficient  school,  and  the  boy  who  was  appren- 
ticed at  twelve  to  a  saddler,  at  twenty  was  a  journey- 
man who  knew  his  trade.  The  years  spent  in 
drudgery  and  in  educative  work  had  yielded,  as 
produce,  a  man  who  could  turn  out  a  saddle. 

The  apprenticeship  method  of  trade  education 
gave  to  the  worker  training,  confidence,  inde- 
pendence and  a  pride  hi  his  workmanship  which  is  of 
supreme  importance  hi  the  doing  of  good  work. 

The  machine  tender,  engaged  in  doing  highly 
specialized  work,  receives  little  training;  he  is  not  a 
craftsman,  and,  above  all  else,  he  is  denied  the  pride 
in  good  work  which  comes  only  when  a  man  makes  a 
completed  product. 

The  child  says,  "It  is  mine.  I  made  it,"  and  the 
ring  of  pride  in  his  voice  when  he  says,  "I  made 
it,"  finds  an  answer  in  the  heart  of  every  human 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       79 

being  who  has  created  anything.  The  creation  need 
not  be  elaborate.  It  may  be  of  the  very  simplest 
description.  Yet,  throughout  the  human  race  the 
instinct  of  workmanship  manifests  itself  in  a  pride 
that  the  thing  has  been  done. 

The  machine  tender  makes  no  products.  He 
bores  holes,  planes  a  surface,  polishes  a  cup,  files 
a  corner,  varnishes  a  button,  shapes  a  shaft.  He  and 
a  thousand  others,  working  with  him,  turn  out  a 
gas  engine,  a  sideboard,  a  spring  or  a  saw.  Here 
and  there  a  workman  plays  a  large  part  in  making 
the  output.  For  the  most  part,  the  machine  tender, 
with  his  machine,  performs  one  small  operation  on 
the  completed  product. 

The  instinct  of  workmanship  is  the  basis  of  indus- 
trial morality.  The  soul  of  sound  industry  lies  in 
this  pride  which  a  man  feels  hi  his  work. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  preach  duty 
to4  the  organization  as  a  substitute  for  the  work- 
manship instinct.  Such  morality  has  proved  a 
sadly  defective  antidote  for  clock-watching,  and  in 
consequence  piece  rate  systems  and  bonus  systems 
are  depended  upon  to  drive  the  machine  tender 
where  the  spirit  of  workmanship  led  the  tool  user. 
Again  coercion  is  substituted  for  volition,  and  with 
equally  bad  results. 

The  machine  tender  suffers  another  loss.  He  is 
separated  from  his  product. 

The  hand  worker  very  frequently  used  the  things 
that  he  made.  If  he  did  sell  them,  it  was  to  people 


80       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

in  his  immediate  neighborhood  with  whom  he  was 
well  acquainted.  He  and  his  friends  and  neighbors 
used  the  things  he  made. 

The  machine  tender  makes  things  for  others  to 
use,  and  when  he  makes  the  product,  he  has  no 
idea  who  will  use  it.  The  shoe-worker  in  Brockton 
and  the  pork-packer  in  Omaha,  work  for  the  world. 
They  do  not  use  the  things  they  make,  and  they 
never  see  or  know  the  user.  The  machine  tender 
makes  things  for  other  people  to  use,  and  the  gulf 
between  him  and  those  others  is  so  great  that*, they 
have  no  human  meaning  for  him.  Kipling  notes  the 
problem  in  his  "Sons  of  Martha"  when  he  writes 
of  the  relation  between  those  who  make  the  good 
things  and  those  who  use  them. 

"They  finger  death  at  their  glove's  end  when  they  piece 

and  repiece  the  living  wires; 
He  rears  behind  the  gates  they  tend,  they  feed  him, 

hungry,  beside  their  fires 
Early  at  dawn,  ere  men  see  clear,  they  stumble  into  his 

terrible  stall 
And  hale  him  forth  like  a  haltered  steer,  and  goad  him  and 

turn  him  until  evenfall. 

"They  do  not  preach  that  their  God  will  rouse  them  a  little 

before  the  nuts  work  loose; 
They  do  not  preach  that  his  pity  allows  them  to  leave 

their  work  whenever  they  choose, 
And  in  the  thronged  and  enlightened  ways.    So  in  the 

dark  and  desert  they  stand, 
Wary  and  watchful,  all  their  days,  that  their  brethren's 

days  may  be  long  in  the  land." 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       81 

The  machine  tender — a  little  unit  in  a  large 
organization — does  not  understand  the  whole  of 
which  he  is  a  part.  He  does  not  know  the  drama 
in  which  his  r61e  is  that  of  supernumerary.  He 
must  be  a  machine  tender  because  he  must  live,  but 
of  the  significance  of  it  all,  he  is  ignorant. 

Against  this  subordination  of  the  individual  and 
his  intelligence  the  world  shouts  its  resentment. 
Says  Emerson:  "Give  us  worse  cotton,  but  give  us 
better  men,"  and  Carlyle  exclaims,  "  Deliver  me 
those  rickety,  perishing  souls  of  infants,  and  let  the 
cotton  trade  take  its  chance."  It  is  for  the  happy, 
noble  human  beings  of  Ruskin's  prophecy  that  the 
world  is  striving  and  it  has  grown  impatient  of  an 
industrial  order  that  sacrifices  human  happiness  to 
the  interest  of  material  progress. 

10.    Spiritual  Values 

Behind  all  human  purpose,  in  its  larger  scope,  is  the 
conservation  of  spiritual  values.  Even  the  simplest 
necessaries  of  life  must  at  times  be  sacrificed  in  the 
cause  of  those  higher  things — truth,  justice,  mercy, 
beauty.  How  much  more  readily  will  comforts 
and  luxuries  be  sacrificed  if  they  are  built  upon 
foundations  of  human  degradation! 

The  man  cannot  be  sacrificed  to  the  machine. 
The  machine  must  serve  mankind,  yet  the  danger 
to  the  human  race  lurks,  menacing,  in  the  Industrial 
Regime. 

The   issue   is   strikingly   stated   in   some   verse 


82       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

written  by  "Don  Marquis"  for  the  Atlanta  Evening 
Journal  after  the  defeat  of  a  Child  Labor  Bill 
in  the  Georgia  Senate.  The  author  says  to  the 
Senators : 

"You  and  I  had  our  play  time,  if  it  was  only  a  few  brief 

years, 
When  we  dreamed  and  wondered  and  laughed — we  can 

look  through  a  blur  of  tears, 
Back  to  the  meadows  of  childhood,  where  through  the 

golden  haze 
Still  move  the  deathless  visions  that  graced  those  careless 

days, — 
But  from  these  you  would  filch  then-  spirits,  a  thing  even 

God  can't  replace, 
The  power  to  dream,  all  the  gift  of  their  first  youth's 

nameless  grace. 

"Better  a  pauper,  penniless,  asleep  on  the  kindly  sod, 
Better  a  gypsy  houseless,  but  near  to  the  heart  of  God, 
That  beats  for  the  ear  not  dulled  by  the  clanking  wheels 

of  care; 
Better  starvation  and  freedom,  and  hope  and  the  good 

sweet  air; 
Than  death  to  the  something  in  him  that  was  born  to 

laugh  and  dream, 
That  was  kin  to  the  idle  lilies  and  the  ripples  of  the 

stream 
For  out  of  the  dreams  of  boyhood,  the  visions  that  come 

and  go, 
The  Boy  gains  strength  unknowing,  that  the  Man  shall 

prove  and  know, 
The  crystal  cistern  of  mirth  must  be  filled  to  the  brim 

in  May 
If  the  soul  is  to  faint  not  nor  perish  in  the  heat  of  the  life's 

later  day. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       83 

"In  crushing  the  blossom  of  hope,  ere  it  blooms  in  the 

heart  of  your  youth, 
You  are  crushing  your  commonwealth's  future,  you  fools 

sans  sense  or  ruth. 

Dull-eyed,  weary  and  old — old  in  his  early  teens, 
You  are  flinging  his  future  and  life  to  the  maw  of  orute 

machines; 
And  dumb  the  heart  of  him  now.  at  the  time  when  his 

heart  should  sing: — 
Are  you  making  slaves  or  men.  what  hope  will  the  future 

bring? 
Twisted  and  stunted  and  stupid,  and  moiled  in  your  mills 

of  grief, 
Can  your  spindles  spin  from  this  remnant  a  man,  a  man 

and  chief? 
Fools,  with  your  mills  and  your  dollars,  your  lies  and  your 

bloody  hands, 
Who  make  a  God  of  a  wheel,  who  worship  your  whirring 

J}ands, 

Go  spin,  spin,  spin, — bow  down  to  your  spindles  then, 
Tatter  to  shreds  the  human  threads  that  were  meant  for 

the  weaving  of  men 

But  ever  the  Silent  Spinners  spin  early  and  spin  late 
Ye  fools,  have  ye  never  heard  of  the  Sisters  Three  of 

Fate?" 

If  the  forebodings  of  some  people  are  justified — if 
the  machine  threatens  to  inaugurate  a  new  system  of 
slavery  that  shall  degrade  man  to  the  service  of 
mechanical  processes,  then,  indeed,  the  revolt  which 
Don  Marquis  voices  is  justified,  and  the  sooner  it 
comes  the  better  for  the  human  race. 


84       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

11.     The  Lilies  of  the  Field 

The  picture  must  not  seem  too  dark.  All  are  not 
subject  to  the  rule  of  the  machine.  An  element 
of  craftsmanship  remains.  Many  benefit  unquali- 
fiedly through  the  Industrial  Regime. 

The  machines  must  be  designed  and  made. 
Improvements  are  always  possible.  Every  industry 
requires  a  quota  of  skilled  men.  In  some  industries 
this  quota  constitutes  a  large  majority  of  all  of  the 
people  employed.  For  the  most  part,  however,  the 
large,  highly  organized  industries  of  the  country  are 
manned  by  great  numbers  of  unskilled  and  semi- 
skilled workers  to  whom  some  simple  task  involving 
neither  craftsmanship  nor  skill  is  allotted.  They 
make  up  the  bulk  of  the  workers  in  the  ordinary 
factory,  and  for  this  majority  industry  is  a  hopeless 
treadmill. 

There  is  another  side  of  the  picture.  The  present 
organization  of  industry  makes  it  possible  for  some 
to  live  in  ease  and  comfort  without  working,  while 
the  rest  of  mankind  is  engaged  in  hewing  wood  and 
drawing  water.  These  people,  while  they  use  the 
products  of  the  Industrial  Regime,  are  not  called 
upon  to  contribute  in  any  way  to  its  activity. 

The  device  by  which  some  of  the  beneficiaries  of 
the  Industrial  Regime  escape  economic  responsi- 
bility is  a  simple  one  known  as  "living  on  one's 
income."  It  is  frequently  met  with  in  every  part 
of  the  United  States. 

The  method  of  living  on  one's  income  is  as  effec- 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       85 

tive  as  it  is  simple.  Anyone  with  surplus  wealth 
may  put  it  into  practice. 

The  modern  machine,  as  has  already  been  said, 
is  too  costly  for  the  individual  worker  to  own. 
The  machine  must  have  an  owner,  however,  and 
under  the  system  now  followed  in  the  United  States, 
some  one,  anyone  hi  fact,  may  own  the  factories, 
shops,  stores,  buildings  and  the  land  on  which  they 
stand.  This  is  an  "investment"  into  which  a  man 
puts  his  surplus  wealth.  In  return  for  this  invest- 
ment, the  owner,  as  his  "right,"  takes  interest  or 
rent.  After  making  the  investment,  he  does  not 
participate  at  all  in  the  work  of  running  the  factory 
or  the  store.  He  is  simply  a  holder  of  property. 
In  return  for  this  property  ownership,  however,  and 
for  as  long  as  he  holds  it,  he  is  paid  six  per  cent. 
If  his  property  is  equal  to  $100,000  his  income  will 
be  $6,000  a  year.  He  needs  a  property  of  only 
$10,000  to  receive  an  income  equal  to  that  of  the 
common  laborer — $600  a  year,  or  $2  a  working  day. 

No  one  asks  how  a  man  gets  enough  surplus  wealth 
to  have  this  property  income.  He  may  inherit  it, 
find  it,  earn  it.  It  may  come  from  his  father,  uncle 
or  wife.  Its  source  may  be  the  steel  business,  the 
cotton  business,  the  real  estate  market,  the  stock 
exchange  or  even  the  roulette  wheel.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary for  the  owner  of  surplus  wealth  to  explain. 
He  simply  puts  his  money  into  stocks,  bonds  or 
mortgages  and  draws  his  dividends  or  interest. 

The  things  produced  by  the  Industrial  Regime 


86       THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

must  pay  the  workers  who  have  been  engaged  in 
their  production.  The  products  must  also  pay  the 
property  owners  who  hold  title  to  the  wealth  invested 
hi  the  industry.  Hats,  shoes,  dishes,  kitchen  ranges, 
all  are  made  by  human  hands  and  machinery. 
Some  of  those  who  get  these  products  work  for  the 
income.  Others  own  for  it. 

The  Industrial  Regime  pays  its  owners  as  well  as 
its  workers.  The  larger  owners  receive  immense 
returns.  As  the  amount  of  capital  invested  in 
industry  increases,  as  the  amount  of  industrial  wealth 
grows,  through  the  increase  hi  land  values,  and  the 
higher  earning  power  of  invested  capital,  the  possi- 
bilities of  property  income  broaden.  There  are  more 
people  living  on  their  incomes  today  than  there 
were  ten  years  ago.  The  habit  and  the  possibility 
is  rapidly  growing  with  the  growth  of  income- 
yielding  property. 

The  Industrial  Regime  has  bright  sides,  and  its 
very  brightest  is  turned  to  those  who  own  industrial 
property.  Like  the  lilies  of  the  field,  many  of  them 
toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin,  and  yet  they  outshine 
the  splendor  of  Solomom. 

12.    The  Machine  and  the  Future 

The  machine  has  been  hailed  as  the  world's 
savior  from  drudgery.  Within  it  lay  infinite  possi- 
bilities of  happiness  and  well-being. 

This  was  the  promise  of  the  machine.  Its  per- 
formance sounds  an  ominous  note — a  note  of  warn- 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE       87 

ing  to  all  well  wishers  of  the  future.  The  machine 
has  subordinated  the  man,  thrusting  him  aside,  and 
taking  from  him  the  precious  heritage  of  craftsman- 
ship, upon  which  he  had  relied  for  education,  for 
civilization  itself.  Instead  of  the  apprenticeship 
which  was  so  essential  an  element  in  hand  industry, 
the  machine  has  put  highly  specialized  occupations, 
reeking  with  monotony  and  speeded  to  the  top  notch 
of  human  staying  powers.  Large  scale  industry,  in- 
tegration, combination  and  centralized  financial  con- 
trol are  all  a  part  of  the  industrial  revolution  which 
has  followed  hi  the  wake  of  the  machine. 

C.  Hanford  Henderson,  in  his  "Pay  Day,"  writes: 
"This  institution  of  industry,  the  most  primitive  of 
all  institutions,  organized  and  developed  hi  order  to 
free  mankind  from  the  tyranny  of  things,  has  become 
itself  the  greater  tyrant,  degrading  a  multitude  into 
the  condition  of  slaves — slaves  doomed  to  produce, 
through  long  and  weary  hours,  a  senseless  glut  of 
things,  and  then  forced  to  suffer  for  lack  of  the 
very  things  they  have  produced." 

The  machine  threatens  to  inaugurate  a  new 
slavery — a  slavery  of  the  individual  worker  to 
routine,  mechanical  production,  a  slavery  of  the  com- 
munity to  an  irresponsible,  self-constituted,  indus- 
trial plutocracy.  The  former  menace  has  become  a 
reality.  The  latter  threat  is  still  a  nebulous,  shadowy 
uncertainty.  Let  it  become  certain,  and  the  political 
democracy  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  dead. 

That  combination  of  steel  and  fire,  which  man 


88        THE  MAN  AND  THE  MACHINE 

has  produced  and  called  a  machine,  must  be  ever  the 
servant,  never  the  master  of  man.  Neither  the  machine 
nor  the  machine  owner  may  rule  the  human  race. 

The  machine  may  be  separated  from  its  evil  effects. 
Says  Carlyle:  "Cotton  spinning  is  the  clothing  of 
the  naked  in  its  result;  the  triumph  of  man  over 
matter  in  its  means.  Soot  and  despair  are  not  the 
essence  of  it;  they  are  divisible  from  it — at  this 
hour,  are  they  not  crying  fiercely  to  be  divided." 

There  is  one  last  test  to  which  every  act  of  machine 
or  man  is  subject:  What  is  its  effect  upon  the  men 
and  women  of  the  community?  "The  man's  the 
gold  for  a'  that."  It  is  the  happiness  and  well- 
being  of  the  families  of  a  community  that  sets  the 
stamp  of  final  social  approval  upon  any  measure. 

The  machine  is  indispensable  to  civilization. 
Without  it  we  must  revert  to  some  form  of  serfdom 
or  of  slavery.  The  machine  is  the  device  that  must 
lift  all  mankind  out  of  the  morass  of  economic 
degradation  onto  the  tableland  of  economic  suffi- 
ciency. The  machine,  as  the  servant  of  mankind, 
and  not  of  any  particular  coterie  of  men,  will  decrease 
drudgery,  increase  the  number  and  richness  of 
things  that  all  may  possess,  and  the  amount  and 
quality  of  the  leisure  that  all  may  enjoy. 

Machinery  is  the  servant  of  all.  The  children  of 
men,  joint  heirs  to  the  untold  advantages  that  may 
accrue  to  the  world  from  the  use  of  machinery  and 
of  the  present  industrial  order,  are  learning  from  the 
Industrial  Regime  to  look  forward  to  a  true  Industrial 
Democracy. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  LABORER  AND  His  HIRE 

1.     Material  and  Spiritual  Values 

THE  possibilities  of  the  machine  light  up  many 
of  the  darkest  corners  of  civilization.  Hunger, 
nakedness,  privation  and  hardship  need  no  longer 
exist.  The  immense  productive  power  of  the 
machine  may  enable  this  century  to  write  in  the 
economic  history  of  the  human  race  a  chapter  headed 
"The  Disappearance  of  Poverty." 

Such  possibilities  lie  hi  the  machine.  Will  they 
be  utilized?  Here  is  a  new  means  through  which  men 
may  free  themselves  from  the  Curse  of  Adam. 
Here  is  a  key  to  human  destiny  standing  ready  in  the 
lock  of  time. 

The  effects  of  the  machine  may  be  measured  in 
the  increase  of  material  things  and  in  the  increase 
of  non-material  values.  Men  may  receive  more 
food  and  clothes  because  of  the  machine,  and  they 
may  also  have  more  freedom,  more  courage,  more 
generosity,  more  tolerance  and  a  clearer  vision  of 
the  things  that  are  to  be.  The  material  advantages 
of  life  are  vital,  but  no  less  vital  than  the  non- 
material  or  spiritual  values  of  life.  The  machine, 
while  increasing  wealth,  may  decrease  liberty  and 

(89) 


90        THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

thus  prove  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing  to  the 
human  race. 

The  machine  carves  its  likeness  into  the  lives  of 
the  workers  and  the  leaders  of  industrial  life.  The 
leaders  are  comparatively  few.  The  workers  are 
the  people — the  common  people — who  make  up  the 
bulk  of  the  community.  In  a  democracy  it  is  to 
them  that  inquiry  must  be  directed  first. 

2.     The  Greatest  Number 

Those  who  work  for  wages  make  up  the  great 
body  of  the  people  in  an  industrial  society.  They 
are  "the  greatest  number."  Since  democracy  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  welfare  of  the 
majority  must  be  regarded  as  paramount,  it  seems 
evident  that  any  system  of  governmental  or  social 
organization  that  professes  to  be  democratic  must 
regard  the  welfare  of  the  wage-earners  as  of  para- 
mount importance.  In  so  far  as  the  community 
fails  to  give  first  place  to  the  welfare  of  the  wage- 
earners,  who  make  up  the  greatest  number  in  an 
industrial  society,  it  fails  hi  its  efforts  to  establish 
democracy. 

When  the  American  people  are  willing  to  stand 
frankly  for  the  proposition  that  the  good  things  of 
life  shall  go  to  the  favored  few  who  hold  the  natural 
resources  or  some  other  form  of  monoply  power, 
there  will  be  no  further  necessity  to  discuss  democ- 
racy. But  so  long  as  the  American  government  is 
organized  as  a  democracy,  and  so  long  as  American 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE        91 

society  is  based  on  democratic  principles,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  insist  on  the  fundamentals  of  democracy 
until  the  last  bulwark  of  privilege  is  destroyed  and 
democracy  is,  indeed,  a  reality. 

The  workers  who  carry  the  burdens  of  industrial 
activity  should,  under  a  democratic  form  of  indus- 
trial organization,  have  its  chief  rewards.  They  do 
the  work.  They  should  receive  the  pay. 

There  are  some  forms  of  labor  which  are  their 
own  reward — which  involve  constructive,  creative 
activity,  and  which  are  always  desirable,  even  if 
they  yield  the  barest  pittance  of  a  wage.  Such 
opportunities  are  not  abundant  in  industrial  society. 
If  the  facts  cited  in  the  foregoing  chapter  established 
any  point,  it  was  that  the  work  of  the  modern  machine 
tender  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  reward  in  itself. 
It  is  so  monotonous,  barren  of  initiative  and  exacting 
that  the  only  justification  that  men  could  have  for 
continuing  in  it  must  be  the  cash  payment  that  they 
receive  in  return  for  their  labor. 

The  wage  thus  becomes  a  matter  of  paramount 
importance.  Since  it  is  almost  the  sole  reward 
that  most  machine  tenders  get  for  their  efforts,  it 
should  be  adequate. 

3.     What  are  Men  Worth? 

Wages  should  be  adequate. 

With  that  proposition  most  people  will  agree 
readily  enough.  But  at  once  the  question  arises, 
"Adequate  for  what'  purpose?"  Immediately  a 
discussion  is  precipitated. 


92        THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

There  are  people — many  of  them — outside  of  the 
ranks  of  the  wage-earners,  who  are  convinced  that 
the  worker  is  now  getting  all  that  he  is  worth. 
Very  frequently,  cultured,  intelligent,  well-to-do 
people  take  such  a  position,  and  then,  to  prove 
their  point,  they  cite  instances  of  paperhangers, 
plumbers,  gardeners  and  washerwomen  who  were 
paid  "more  than  they  were  worth."  Such  state- 
ments naturally  raise  the  question,  "What  are  men 
worth?" 

What  is  worth,  and  who  are  worthy? 

Centuries  of  social  experience  have  furnished  at 
least  one  negative  answer  to  that  question.  Ancestry, 
education,  culture  and  leisure  are  not  synonyms  for 
worth.  They  produce  too  much  ennui,  dilettantism 
and  pharisaism  to  be  regarded  as  adequate  worth 
tests. 

The  experience  of  the  ages  has  led  also  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  terms  of  spiritual  values,  which  are 
the  highest  values  that  man  has  thus  far  learned  to 
measure,  truth  and  justice  and  mercy  are  the  real 
measures  of  worth.  Emerson  called  these  spiritual 
values  "The  manners  of  a  man's  soul."  Whether 
they  occur  hi  Marcus  Aurelius  the  Emperor  or  in 
Epictetus  the  slave,  they  are  still  the  measure  of  real 
worth. 

Service  is  the  only  test  that  the  economist  can 
apply  as  a  measure  of  worth.  In  so  far  as  we  do  for 
others,  we  are  expressing  truth,  justice  and  mercy 
in  our  acts.  Thus  the  spiritual  values  appear  in 
material  or  at  least  in  visible  forms. 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE        93 

Worth  is  measured  by  service.  Men  are  worth 
as  much  as  they  serve. 

Ruskin  carried  this  doctrine  so  far,  hi  his  inter- 
pretation of  economics,  as  to  declare,  "There  is  no 
wealth  but  life."  Value,  to  him,  was  that  which 
avails  toward  life.  The  things  that  enlarged  life 
he  called  "wealth;"  the  things  that  narrowed  life 
he  called  "illth."  He  based  his  entire  economic 
philosophy  on  the  relations  of  human  welfare. 

The  "useful"  or  "worthy"  citizen  is  therefore 
the  one  who  renders  the  great  service.  The  com- 
mands, "Do  unto  others  as  you  would  that  they 
should  do  unto  you"  and  "Love  thy  neighbor"  are 
immortal  because  they  are  founded  on  service,  which 
is  the  first  and  greatest  law  of  life. 

With  this  service  measure  of  worth  in  mind,  turn 
to  the  proposition  that  this  cotton  weaver  and  that 
salesgirl  are  receiving  adequate  wages. 

Here  is  a  man  who  is  giving  the  best  of  his  tune 
and  energy — his  very  life — three  hundred  days  a 
year,  ten  hours  every  day  to  the  weaving  of  cotton 
cloth.  As  a  return  for  this  labor,  he  receives  $600  a 
year.  If  such  a  man,  giving  three  thousand  hours 
each  year  to  the  task  of  making  clothing  that  will 
be  worn  by  his  fellows,  is  worth  $600,  how  much  is 
the  man  worth  who  has  been  living  since  the  day 
that  he  was  born,  thirty  years  ago,  on  the  income 
from  his  father's  estate? 

Take  another  case.  This  girl  stands  all  day  behind 
the  counter  in  a  department  store,  selling  laces.  In 


94        THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

return  for  this  expenditure  of  time  and  energy,  she 
receives  $400  a  year.  If  such  a  girl  is  worth  $400, 
how  much  is  a  girl  worth  who  lived  on  the  income 
earned  by  her  father  until  she  married  her  husband; 
who  has  never  born  children  or  raised  her  hand  to 
serious  labor;  and  who  comes  in  the  pursuit  of  her 
luxurious  tastes  to  buy  laces  from  the  salesgirl  who 
is  worth  $400  a  year? 

The  ordinary  processes  of  mathematics  do  not 
leave  for  the  son  of  his  father  or  the  wife  of  her 
husband  a  very  ample  economic  basis  for  existence. 
If  it  is  true  that  the  worth  of  any  individual  must  be 
measured  hi  terms  of  the  service  which  he  con- 
tributes to  his  fellow-men,  the  status  of  these  two 
people  is  already  algebraic.  They  are  worth  zero 
at  birth,  minus  the  entire  cost  of  their  maintenance 
since  that  tune. 

The  father  and  the  husband  protest.  "Have  we 
not  a  right  to  keep  our  sons  and  our  wives  hi  idle- 
ness and  luxury  if  we  see  fit  to  do  so?  "  To  be  sure 
you  have.  You  may  put  your  wealth  into  their 
upkeep  as  you  would  to  the  upkeep  of  any  other 
bit  of  decorative  finery.  At  the  same  tune  you  must 
realize  that  they  are  only  decorative  finery,  and  that 
therefore,  like  any  other  wanton  luxury,  they  are 
an  offense  to  the  community  so  long  as  there  are 
working  people  who  lack  the  necessaries  of  life; 
and  furthermore,  that  it  is  unseemly,  even  grotesque, 
for  such  people  and  for  the  group  in  society  which 
they  represent  to  say  that  this  or  that  person  who  is 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE        95 

engaged  in  doing  some  useful  work  is  "getting  all 
he  is  worth." 

Those  who  hew  the  wood  and  draw  the  water, 
those  who  labor  with  the  head  or  with  the  hand  in 
the  interest  of  the  upbuilding  of  the  community,  are 
in  a  class  by  themselves.  In  another  class,  distinct 
from  the  workers,  are  those  who,  because  of  their 
ownership  of  some  natural  resource  or  of  some 
productive  machinery,  are  able  to  take  from  the 
worker  a  part  of  the  product  of  his  labor  in  the  form 
of  rent  or  interest.  The  workers  build  society  and 
make  progress  possible.  The  owners  live,  parasit- 
ically,  upon  the  proceeds  of  the  work  which  the 
workers  are  doing. 

The  workers  are  an  economic  asset.  They 
create  prosperity.  The  owners  are  an  economic 
liability.  They  are  a  burden  on  the  productive 
forces  of  the  community.  Each  day  that  they  live 
throws  them  deeper  into  the  debt  of  the  society  that 
supports  them. 

4.    Does  the  Laborer  Get  Enough? 

Wages  cannot  be  measured  in  terms  of  service  to 
the  community  under  a  system  of  economic  society 
that  rewards  the  man  who  owns  much  more  liberally 
than  it  rewards  the  man  who  works.  Therefore  it 
is  necessary  to  turn  to  some  of  the  more  specific 
issues  that  are  raised  by  the  present  rates  of  wage 
payment,  and  discover,  if  possible,  whether  the 
worker  gets  enough. 


96        THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

What  is  enough? 

There  must  be  some  way  in  which  the  wage 
received  by  a  man  may  be  adjudged  adequate  or 
inadequate. 

Other  things  of  far  less  importance  are  measured 
with  the  greatest  nicety.  The  amount  of  fertilizer 
required  on  a  given  piece  of  land  to  raise  a  bushel  of 
potatoes;  the  proper  consistency  of  the  cement 
that  goes  into  a  railroad  bridge;  the  tensile  strength 
of  structural  iron;  the  maximum  speed  and  effi- 
ciency of  machinery;  the  possibilities  of  petroleum 
and  of  coal  tar — all  of  those  things  have  received 
devoted  attention  from  those  who  are  giving  their 
lives  to  the  upbuilding  of  industry;  and  yet,  with 
the  exception  of  what  is  called  the  "Efficiency 
Movement,"  there  has  been  no  commensurate 
effort  to  solve  the  more  serious  aspects  of  the  wage 
problem. 

The  wage-problem  is  one  of  the  most  acute.  The 
wage-earners  are  clamoring  for  higher  wages.  The 
employers  are  protesting  that  wages  are  already  too 
high.  Out  of  this  difference  of  opinion  grow  bitter 
social  conflicts. 

The  basis  on  which  the  adequacy  of  wages  is  to  be 
determined  must  be  a  social  one.  The  demands  of 
a  particular  laborer,  or  of  a  particular  group  of 
laborers,  can  have  no  more  part  in  the  determination 
of  wage  adequacy  than  the  demands  of  a  particular 
employer  or  of  a  particular  group  of  employers. 
The  final  test  of  the  adequacy  of  wages  must  be  the 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE        97 

welfare  of  the  community.  A  given  wage  seems 
sufficient  from  the  standpoint  of  the  majority 
interest.  Then  that  is  an  adequate  wage.  Another 
wage  is  so  high  or  so  low  that  it  threatens  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community.  The  wage  is  a  subject  for 
immediate  revision. 

5.     The  Measure  of  Wage  Adequacy 

Wages  are  adequate  when  they  reflect  the  best 
interests  of  the  community.  There  are  three  impor- 
tant ways  in  which  then*  effect  on  the  community 
may  be  measured: 

1.  The  wage  paid  must  be  sufficient  to  maintain 

the  efficiency  of  the  workers. 

2.  The    wage    must  be    high    enough    to    make 

poverty,    hardship    or    social    dependence 
unnecessary. 

3.  The  wage  must   be  sufficient   to  enable  the 

worker  and  his  family  to  live  like  self- 
respecting  members  of  the  community. 
These  three  facts  of  wage  adequacy  are  primary. 
No  industry  can  endure  which  does  not  give  to  its 
workers  an  efficiency  wage.  Even  were  there  an 
ample  supply  of  labor  to  replace  the  workers  as  they 
were  worn  out  and  cast  aside  because  of  the  deteriora- 
tion due  to  insufficient  wages,  there  comes  a  time  in 
the  history  of  any  industrial  or  social  group  when 
the  mills  and  the  factories  plan  to  get  their  labor 
supply  from  among  the  sons  and  daughters  of  their 
former  employees.  To  that  end  the  wages  should  be 

7 


98        THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

adequate  to  maintain  the  efficiency  of  the  worker 
from  day  to  day  and  to  allow  his  children  to  grow 
up  hi  health  and  physical  efficiency.  This  is  merely 
another  way  of  saying  that  industry  must  be  self- 
supporting. 

The  managers  of  a  power  plant  would  be  more  than 
anxious  to  keep  up  the  supply  of  water  from  which 
their  power  was  generated.  Labor  is  the  power  of 
civilization.  Those  who  direct  the  affairs  of  the 
world  must  see  to  it  that  the  efficiency  of  the  labor 
supply  is  maintained  otherwise  civilization  breaks 
down. 

Society  is  interested  in  self-support.  Each  mem- 
ber of  a  social  group,  at  some  tune  during  his  life 
should  make  a  contribution  to  society  that  is  equal 
to  the  cost  of  his  upbringing;  the  cost  of  maintaining 
him  in  old  age;  and  in  addition  an  amount  sufficient 
to  add  something  to  the  net  wealth  of  the  com- 
munity. This  is  another  way  of  saying  that  society 
must  be  self-supporting.  The  community  must 
therefore  oppose  any  wage  that  will  lead  to  poverty, 
dependence  or  any  other  state  of  life  that  takes  the 
individual  out  of  the  self-supporting  group.  If 
wages  are  inadequate  to  allow  for  self-support,  sooner 
or  later  the  community  must  go  into  bankruptcy. 

A  manufacturer  recently  called  up  a  charity 
society,  explained  that  he  had  a  man  running  an 
elevator  hi  his  plant  who  was  paid  a  wage  of  $10  a 
week  with  which  he  was  attempting  to  support  a 
family  of  four  children.  The  manufacturer  called 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE        99 

the  attention  of  the  charity  society  to  the  fact  that 
a  man,  wife  and  four  children  could  not  possibly 
live  decently  in  that  city  on  $10  a  week,  and  asked 
whether  the  society  would  be  willing  to  give  the 
man  a  pension  to  supplement  his  wage.  He 
explained  that  $10  a  week  was  all  that  he  could 
afford  to  pay  an  elevator  man. 

This  manufacturer  was  asking  the  community 
to  repeat  the  experience  of  England  with  the 
Elizabethan  poor  law,  under  which  the  employer 
paid  a  part  of  the  wages  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
English  families,  who  were  forced  to  depend  for 
the  remainder  of  then*  incomes  on  the  grants  of  poor 
relief  from  the  public  authorities.  In  the  course  of 
time,  wages  were  so  adjusted  that  the  man  with  a 
family  to  support  took  his  wages  and  as  a  matter  of 
course  supplemented  them  by  an  appeal  to  the  poor 
law  authorities.  The  public  authorities  subsidized 
the  business  of  employers,  who  were  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  paying  living  wages  to  their  employees. 

Wages  must  be  sufficient  to  enable  the  wage- 
earner  and  his  family  to  live  like  self-respecting  mem- 
bers of  the  community.  It  is  not  enough  to  keep  the 
wolf  from  the  door.  The  worker  should  be  able  to 
set  up  a  positive  standard  of  respectable  living. 

Surely,  no  man  hi  the  community  deserves  to  live 
better  than  the  man  who  does  its  work.  If  there  is 
wealth  enough  to  support  anyone  in  decency,  that 
person  should  be  the  worker. 

There  is  nothing  that  builds  self-respect  more 


100      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

surely  than  honest  work  honestly  done.  The  first 
consideration  of  an  industrial  society  should  be  to 
see  that  the  people  who  do  the  work  of  the  world 
have  every  possible  return  in  the  form  of  wages  that 
permit  respectable  living. 

Finally,  the  wage  paid  to  the  worker  must  be  a 
family  wage.  The  home  is  the  basic  institution  of 
the  community.  Each  man  expects  and  is  expected 
by  the  community  to  make  a  home  and  bring  up 
a  family.  There  is  no  other  basis  on  which  the  com- 
munity can  hope  to  persist.  If  men  are  to  make 
homes  and  to  raise  families,  the  wage  paid  to  them 
by  industry  must  be  adequate  for  family  support. 

Expenditures  vary  from  one  family  to  another. 
One  housewife  will  make  a  wage  go  farther  than 
her  neighbor.  Ability  to  manage  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  way  are  both  necessary  for  domestic  success. 
After  making  all  due  allowance  for  this  fact,  there 
remains  the  undeniable  fact  that  under  any  standard 
of  house  management  there  is  a  minunum  of  food, 
clothing  and  shelter  below  which  no  family  can  exist. 
This  minimum  may  be  placed  at  a  high  figure  or  at  a 
low  figure,  but  when  all  is  said,  there  it  stands. 
Unless  the  wage  of  the  worker  will  pay  for  this 
minimum  of  family  life,  neither  individual  efficiency 
nor  family  decency  is  possible. 

If  the  American  wage  is  sufficiently  high  to 
maintain  individual  efficiency,  to  prevent  social 
dependence  and  to  guarantee  self-respecting  family 
life,  it  is  an  adequate  wage.  On  the  other  hand, 


CHATEAU    AND   TENEMENT 

The  handsome  country  residence  of  an  American  captain  of  indus- 
try is  built  in  the  French  style,  beside  an  artificial  lake  and  sur- 
rounded by  beautiful  private  parks  and  gardens  (Photo  trom 
••House  &  Garden.")  The  tenement  house  shown  below  is  inhabited 
bv  a  large  number  of  poor  people,  for  whom  there  is  only  one  wash 
room  One  floor  and  the  basement  are  below  the  street  level. 
(Photo  by  Hine  from  "Neglected  Neighbors.  ) 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE     .101 

if  the  American  wage  will  not  permit  these  things 
for  a  family  of  reasonable  size,  under  the  direction 
of  a  person  of  ordinary  managing  ability,  it  is  an 
inadequate  wage. 

6.     What  is  the  American  Wage? 

The  "American  Wage"  has  been  talked  about 
and  written  about  at  great  length.  Is  it  a  tangible 
something  that  can  be  measured  and  described  as 
one  would  measure  and  describe  a  city  lot? 

The  best  way  of  showing  the  wages  paid  to  a  group 
of  people  is  to  employ  the  scheme  of  classified  wage 
figures.  Instead  of  saying  that  the  average  wage  is 
$1.80,  we  say  that  among  the  200  wage-earners 
under  consideration,  40  received  less  than  $1.50  a 
day;  65  received  $1.50  but  less  than  $1.75;  50 
received  $1.75  but  less  than  $2,  and  so  on.  By  this 
use  of  classified  wages,  if  the  wage  groups  are  small 
enough,  a  very  clear  idea  may  be  obtained  of  the 
actual  status  of  the  200  wage-earners. 

There  should  be  no  confusion  on  one  point.  The 
wage  figures  that  are  published  show  the  wage  that 
is  paid  by  the  industries  of  the  United  States  to  the 
people  who  do  the  work  of  industry.  These  wages 
do  not  represent  what  the  men  earn.  The  wages 
paid  by  the  American  industries  to  the  workers  in 
those  industries  represent  not  what  the  workers  earn 
but  what  they  get.  The  wage  is  simply  the  amount 
received  by  the  wage-earner  in  return  for  a  given 
expenditure  of  time  and  energy. 


102      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 


Sometimes  the  wage  is  the  result  of  a  bargain 
between  the  employer  and  the  group  of  wage-earners, 
represented  by  a  union.  Sometimes  it  is  the  wage 
paid  by  the  employer  to  the  individuals  who  offer 
themselves  for  his  employ.  In  either  case,  it  is  the 
amount  paid  by  industry  to  its  workers. 

Emphasis  is  laid  on  this  point  because  people  are 
prone  to  believe  that  the  wage  paid  to  the  worker 
is  determined  by  the  worker.  The  phrase,  "He 
gets  all  that  he  is  worth,"  is  based  on  that  supposi- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  primary  responsi- 
bility for  the  wage  paid  by  the  industries  of  the 
United  States  rests  with  the  industries  themselves. 
In  a  very  few  cases  where  there  are  powerful  trade 
unions,  this  is  not  true.  As  a  general  rule  it  holds. 
The  wage-earners  are  getting  all  they  can,  while 
the  industrial  managers,  for  the  most  part,  pay  as 
little  as  they  must  to  get  a  man  of  given  ability. 

TABLE  III. — THE  WEEKLY  WAGE-RATES  PAID  TO  ADULT  MALES 
BY  THE  MANUFACTURING  INDUSTRIES  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  1912. 


WeeklyiWage. 

Adult  Males. 

Per  Cent. 

Under  $10  

126,011 

28.86 

$10  but  under  $15  

166.440 

38.13 

$15  but  under  $20  

98,839 

22.64 

$20  but  under  $25  

31,416 

7.20 

$25  and  over  

13,870 

3.17 

Total  

436,576 

100.00 

The   wage   figures   published   for   Massachusetts 
are  typical1  of  the  wages  paid  to  those  engaged  in 

1  For  a  full  discussion  of  wages  in  various  industries  and  various 
parts  of  the  country,  see  "Income,"  Scott  Nearing.  The  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  1915,  Chapter  4. 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      103 

the  manufacturing  industries  in  the  northeastern 
part  of  the  United  States. 

The  wage  groups  are  made  large  in  the  preceding 
table  for  convenience  in  discussion.  The  first  group, 
under  $10  a  week,  reports  more  than  a  quarter  of  the 
number  of  males  employed  hi  the  state.  That  is, 
out  of  nearly  half  a  million  male  wage  earners  in 
the  factories  of  Massachusetts,  one  in  every  four 
was  paid  less  than  $10  a  week.  Nearly  two-fifths 
received  as  much  as  $10,  but  less  than  $15  a  week; 
a  fifth  were  paid  between  $15  and  $20;  and  a 
tenth  were  paid  more  than  $20.  If  a  line  is  drawn 
at  a  wage  of  $15  a  week,  two-thirds  of  the  men 
would  fall  below  it  and  one  in  every  three  would 
come  above  it.  If  a  line  is  drawn  at  $20,  nine- 
tenths  are  below  and  one-tenth  above. 

These  figures  are  for  one  week  only.  According 
to  the  official  requirements,  they  refer  to  the  most 
prosperous  week  within  a  given  period  of  time. 
Full  time  prosperity  does  not  continue,  however. 
In  the  year  for  which  these  statistics  were  taken, 
the  manufacturing  industries  worked  less  than  nine- 
tenths  of  full  time.  Therefore,  hi  figuring  yearly 
earnings,  an  amount  equivalent  to  this  reduction  in 
full  time  must  be  made  from  the  wages  as  here 
given.  Since  these  figures  are  taken  from  the  pay- 
rolls, they  do  not  show  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
individual  working  life.  Sickness,  accidents  and 
other  circumstances  over  which  individuals  have 
little  or  no  control  cut  into  the  total  work  tune  and 


104      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

reduce  the  annual  earnings  of  the  workers  far  below 
the  apparent  annual  returns,  assuming  a  year  of 
fifty-two  weeks. 

Suppose,  for  the  tune  being,  that  there  was  a 
full  time  year.  There  is  no  such  thing  on  record. 
Even  if  there  were,  two-thirds  of  the  adult  male 
wage-earners  of  Massachusetts  would  be  in  receipt 
of  less  than  $780  a  year;  more  than  a  fourth,  of 
less  than  $520  a  year;  nine-tenths,  of  less  than 
$1,040  a  year,  and  only  three  in  a  hundred  would  be 
getting  more  than  $1,300  a  year. 

The  authors  of  Public  Health  Bulletin  No. 
76  (Washington,  1916,  p.  34)  estimate  the  loss 
of  working  time  "in  the  principal  manufacturing 
and  mining  industries"  at  "from  one-fifth  to  one- 
third  of  the  full  working  tune."  On  this  basis  they 
estimate  that  "in  the  principal  industries  fully  one- 
fourth  of  adult  male  workers  who  are  heads  of 
families  earned  less  than  $400,  one-half  earned  less 
than  $600,  four-fifths  earned  less  than  $800,  and  less 
than  one-tenth  earned  as  much  as  $1,000  a  year." 
The  figures  on  which  these  estimates  of  annual 
earnings  are  based,  while  far  less  complete  than  the 
figures  for  weekly  wages,  are  worthy  of  the  most 
serious  consideration. 

A  careful,  detailed  investigation  into  the  wages 
paid  in  other  industries  besides  manufacturing 
shows  that  the  manufacturing  wage  is  typical  of 
the  wage  paid  in  other  industries  demanding  a 
like  amount  of  skill  and  intelligence.  These  wages 


THE   LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      105 


SUMMARY  OF  WAGE  RATES  IN 
AMERICAN  INDUSTRY 

(No  allowance  for  unemployment) 


$1,000  and  over 


may  be  taken  as  fairly  typical  of  the  wage  situation 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States. 

The  American  wage — the  amount  paid  by  Ameri- 
can industry  to  its  workers — may  be  characterized 
briefly  in  these  terms.  A  comparatively  small  per- 
centage (from  5  to  10  in  100)  of  the  persons  gain- 
fully employed  hi  modern  industry  are  on  a  salary 
basis.  The  vast  ma- 
jority of  the  employ- 
ees (from  90  to  95  in 
100)  are  paid  a  wage 
or  its  equivalent. 
Among  those  who 
work  for  wages,  the 
great  majority  (about 
nine-tenths  of  the 
adult  males)  receive 
wage  rates  of  $1,000 
per  year  or  less.  The 
wage  rates  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  males 

fall  below  $750;  one-third  below  $500.  These  state- 
ments make  no  allowance  for  unemployment,  which 
is  a  constant,  irreducible  factor.  Unemployment 
due  to  lack  of  work  alone  is  generally  met  with. 
Add  to  this  the  unemployment  resulting  from  sick- 
ness, accidents  and  other  personal  causes,  and  the 
proportion  is  still  higher.  While  this  summary  will 
not  hold  true  for  particular  cases,  it  does  describe 
wages  in  the  large. 


$750 


to  $1,000 


Under  $750 


106      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

7.  The  Phases  of  Wage  Adequacy 

An  adequate  wage  is  one  that  will  provide  for 
efficiency,  maintain  decency  and  make  possible  self- 
respect.  This  is  a  minimum  wage. 

The  Industrial  Regime  as  it  is  now  organized 
pays  a  certain  wage  to  its  workers.  This  wage  is 
not  what  the  workers  earn,  but  what  they  get.  It  is 
the  amount  allowed  by  the  Industrial  Regime  to 
those  who  carry  on  its  necessary  activities. 

There  are  three  directions  in  which  the  adequacy 
of  this  wage  may  be  measured: 

1.  Its  adequacy  to  provide  for  health  and  decency 

— that  is,  its  livelihood  adequacy. 

2.  Its  adequacy  in  terms  of  sound  business  pro- 

cedure— that  is,  its  economic  adequacy. 

3.  Its  adequacy  in  terms  of  community  standards 

— that  is,  its  social  adequacy. 
No  wage  can  be  adequate  in  the  fullest  sense  of 
that  term  until  it  makes  possible  reasonable  liveli- 
hood, economic  and  social  standards. 

8.  Wages  and  Physical  Efficiency 

The  adequacy  of  wages  may  be  tested  in  terms  of 
the  health  and  well-being  which  are  involved  in  the 
maintenance  of  physical  efficiency.  A  number  of 
attempts  to  ascertain  the  cost  of  a  decent  standard 
of  living  have  been  based  on  the  assumption  that 
physical  health,  education  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen 
and  the  other  minimum  requirements  of  modern 
American  life  were  included  hi  the  term  " decency." 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      107 

There  is  a  definite  minimum  of  food,  clothing, 
shelter  and  other  necessaries  of  life  below  which 
physical  health  and  social  decency  are  impossible. 
That  minimum  is  fixed  by  the  demands  of  nature  and 
by  the  standards  of  society  wholly  independent  of 
price;  therefore,  any  discussion  of  the  cost  of  a  decent 
living  begins  with  an  analysis  of  the  various  items 
which  comprise  living  decency. 

The  recent  discussions  of  the  wages  of  women, 
the  relation  to  prostitution,  and  the  whole  range  of 
economic  and  social  problems  that  result  from  the 
entrance  of  women  into  industries  outside  of  the 
home  have  led  inevitably  to  a  consideration  of  the 
wages  of  women.  Industries  employ  single  women 
who  must  be  self-supporting.  Do  they  pay  wages 
that  will  permit  of  self-support  in  terms  of  health 
and  efficiency? 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  studies  of  the  sub- 
ject have  been  made  by  the  Massachusetts  Minimum 
Wage  Commission.  Mrs.  Glendower  Evans,  a 
member  of  the  Commission,  tells  of  the  dramatic 
events  surrounding  one  of  the  earliest  investigations. 

The  Commission  had  investigated  wages  in  one  of 
the  smaller  Massachusetts  industries  employing  a 
large  proportion  of  women.  Then  the  Commission 
considered,  item  by  item,  the  minimum  cost  of 
decent  living  for  a  self-supporting  woman  living  in  the 
neighborhood  of  these  industries.  Mrs.  Evans  in  her 
address  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American 
Economic  Association  at  Princeton,  1914,  said: 


108      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

"Very  grave  the  employers  looked  during  this  phase 
of  the  discussion  and  their  surprise  was  obvious  when 
the  trifling  items  they  had  agreed  to,  one  by  one, 
were  totaled."  The  total  was  $8.71  per  week. 
Mrs.  Evans  continued:  "With  $8.71  accepted  as 
the  minimum  sum  upon  which  the  independent 
woman  could  support  herself,  the  chairman  said: 
'I  call  the  Board's  attention  to  the  fact  that  this 
figure  is  higher  than  the  wages  received  by  over 
90  per  cent  of  the  women  employed  in  this  indus- 
try.' '  Among  the  180,214  women  employed  in  the 
industries  of  Massachusetts  in  1910,  two-thirds  were 
paid  at  a  rate  of  less  than  $8.71  per  week 

Similar  showings  are  made  hi  Philadelphia  by  the 
Consumers'  League;  hi  Baltimore,  where  E.  B. 
Butler  fixed  a  minimum  at  $6.70,  and  found  81  per 
cent  of  the  department  store  employees  receiving  less 
than  that  amount;  in  New  York  City  by  the 
Factory  Investigating  Commission,  and  generally, 
wherever  the  wages  of  women  have  been  studied, 
they  seem  to  be,  in  the  vast  majority  of  instances, 
insufficient  to  pay  for  health  and  efficiency.3 

The  relation  of  the  wages  of  women  to  the  cost 
of  healthful  living  is  important.  Even  more  signifi- 
cant, however,  is  the  relation  of  men's  wages  to  the 
cost  of  a  healthful  living  for  a  family.  During  the 
past  ten  years  this  matter  has  received  a  great 


2  Proceedings,  p.  273. 

8  A  summary  of  women's  wages  will  be   found  in   "Income," 
Scott  Nearing,  op.  cit.,  Chapter  3. 


THE    COAL    FAMINE 

"Please,  good  Mr.  Devil,  fetch  my  mamma,  too.     It's  so  nice  and 

warm  in  your  house." 

Realistically  drawn,  starving  slum  children  and  the  company  they 
prefer  to  the  comforts  (?)  of  their  own  home.  (A  cartoon  by 
Thomas  Theodor  Heine  from  "Simplizissimus.") 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      109 

deal  of  attention.  Estimates  of  the  cost  of  health- 
ful living  have  been  made  on  an  elaborate  scale, 
and  the  results  derived  in  a  large  number  of  studies 
have  been  used  to  check  each  other.4  Perhaps  the 
matter  can  be  stated  most  definitely  if  the  question 
is  confined,  for  the  moment,  to  one  industry— 
that  of  anthracite  coal5 — which  employs  175,000 
men  and  boys  in  the  Pennsylvania  anthracite  field. 

The  ordinary  man,  doing  moderate  physical  work, 
requires  approximately  3,500  heat  units  of  energy 
per  day.  Unless  these  energy  units  are  supplied, 
he  must  ultimately  become  devitalized.  The 
anthracite  workers,  as  a  group,  are  doing  more  than 
"  moderate  physical  work."  However,  the  3,500 
unit  standard  will  be  accepted  as  a  minimum. 

An  adult  man  requires  3,500  units  of  energy.  An 
adult  woman  requires  eight-tenths  as  much.  For 
convenience,  the  discussion  will  be  built  around  a 
family  that  includes  a  man,  his  wife,  a  boy  of  twelve, 
a  girl  of  ten,  a  girl  of  seven  and  a  boy  of  five. 
These  children  require  respectively,  seven-tenths, 
six-tenths,  five-tenths  and  four-tenths  as  much  as 
an  adult  man.  The  family,  taken  together,  would, 
therefore,  represent  a  consuming  power  equal  to 
that  of  four  adult  men.6 


4  For  summaries  of  these  studies  see  "Standard  of  Living,"  F.  H. 
Streightoff.  Houghton,  Mifflin  Co.,  1911.  "Financing  the  Wage- 
Earner's  Family,  Scott  Nearing.  New  York:  B.  W.  Huebsch, 
1913. 

6  A  full  statement  of  the  situation  will  be  found  in  "Anthracite," 
Scott  Nearing.  Winston  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1915,  Chapter  4. 

6  For  fuller  details  regarding  methods  of  estimating  the  dietary, 
see  "Financing  the  Wage-Earner's  Family,"  Chap.  2,  Sec.  7. 


110      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

The  cost  of  3,500  heat  units  per  day  has  been 
variously  estimated.7  In  view  of  the  studies  that 
have  been  made,  it  would  be  conservative  to  accept 
28  cents  per  man  per  day  as  a  basis  for  estimating 
the  food  needs  of  a  family  in  the  anthracite  regions. 
The  food  requirements  of  the  family  of  four  for  a 
day  would  therefore  be  four  times  28  cents  or  $1.12. 
This  equals  $7.84  per  week,  or  $408  per  year. 

If  recent  dietary  studies  are  correct,  $408  per  year 
should  buy  enough  food  to  keep  the  anthracite  mine 
worker,  his  wife  and  four  children  hi  physical  health. 

The  second  largest  item  in  the  family  budget  is 
the  rent  cost.  Students  of  the  standard  of  living 
have  assumed  that  a  family  of  six  should  have  not 
less  than  four  ordinary  rooms  in  order  to  maintain 
health  and  decency.  A  four-room  house  in  the 
smaller  towns  of  the  anthracite  region  costs  about 
$80  a  year.  In  the  larger  towns  and  cities  the  cost 
is  about  $130  per  year. 

The  next  considerable  item  hi  the  budget  is  cloth- 
ing, and  on  this  item  there  is  a  wide  diversity  of 
opinion.  Chapin,  hi  his  New  York  study,  allowed 
$33  per  year  for  the  man's  clothing;  $23  for  the 
woman's  clothing;  $15  for  clothing  each  girl  and 
$12  for  clothing  each  boy.  There  was  an  additional 
allowance  for  soap  and  laundry.  On  such  a  basis 
the  family  which  we  are  considering  would  spend 
$110  for  clothing.  The  New  York  Bureau  of 


7  Report  on  the  Cost  of  Living  for  an  Unskilled  Laborer's  Family 
in  New  York  City,  1914,  p.  13. 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      111 

Standards  (1915)  places  the  clothing  item  at  the 
same  figure  as  Dr.  Chapin.  The  Federal  study  adds 
about  one-third  to  the  Chapin  estimate.  If  the 
Chapin  estimate  is  accepted,  it  is  a  bare  minimum. 
The  additional  items  of  family  expenditure  appear 
in  the  following  list,  with  amounts  set  after  them 
equal  to  the  amounts  prescribed  hi  the  Federal  study 
for  a  cotton-mill  town  in  Massachusetts. 

Fuel  and  light $24 .00 

Doctor  and  medicine 13 . 98 

Insurance 20 . 80 

Amusement 15 . 60 

Church 10.40 

Newspapers,  etc 8 . 84 

Incidentals..,  26.00 


Total $119.62 

These  amounts,  it  should  be  noted,  are  for  the  most 
part  lower  than  the  allowances  made  for  like  objects 
by  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Standards.  Carfare 
is  omitted.  It  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  budget 
hi  many  cases. 

Summing  up,  the  costs  of  physical  health  and 
decency  for  a  family  of  six  in  the  anthracite  region 
would  be: 

Food $408 

Rent 80 

Clothing 110 

Additional  items 120 

Total..  .  $718 


112      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

The  rent  item  here  used  is  for  villages.  In  the 
cities  $50  must  be  added  for  rent,  bringing  the  cost 
to  $768.  This  sum— $768— the  cost  of  decent 
living  for  a  family  of  six  persons  in  an  anthracite 
city — is  an  estimate.  Accurate  information  cannot 
be  obtained  until  a  first-hand  investigation  is  made 
in  the  anthracite  region.  The  point  that  should  be 
enforced  is  not  the  $768,  but  the  fact  that  there  is 
some  minimum  of  subsistence  below  which  health 
and  decency  are  impossible.  Until  that  minimum 
in  ascertained  there  can  be  no  final  adjustment  of 
wages  that  will  be  either  tolerable  or  equitable. 

Meanwhile,  the  $768  estimate  for  the  anthracite 
regions  may  be  compared  with  the  standard  of 
living  studies  made  in  recent  years.  In  New  York 
City,  for  example,  Chapin  estimates  the  cost  of 
decency  at  from  $800  to  $900  for  a  family  of  five 
persons.  In  Fall  River,  Mass.,  the  Federal  study 
makes  an  estimate  of  about  $750;  for  Buffalo  the 
estimate  is  $850;  for  Chicago  it  is  $800.8  The  most 
recent  estimate,  made  after  a  careful  study  by  the 
New  York  Bureau  of  Standards,  sets  the  cost  in 
New  York  City  at  $840. 

How  does  this  figure  ($718  for  villages  and  $768 
for  cities)  compare  with  the  wages  paid  to  anthracite 
workers?  In  so  far  as  averages  are  an  index  of 
wages,  many  of  the  contract  miners  receive  a  wage 
of  $800  or  more.  The  laborers,  inside  and  outside 


•  "Financing  the  Wage-Earner's  Family,"  Scott  Nearing,  op.  cit., 
Chap.  3. 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      113 

workers,  with  average  daily  wages  of  $2  to  $2.50, 
would  be  able  to  earn  $750  a  year  only  by  working 
a  full  year  of  306  days.  The  largest  number  of 
days  worked  by  the  anthracite  miners  in  recent  years 
was  257  days,  and  that  was  well  above  the  average 
of  the  five-year  period. 

Many  contract  miners  are  apparently  hi  receipt  of 
annual  earnings  that  will  provide  living  decency 
for  a  family  of  four  young  children.  The  great 
bulk  of  anthracite  workers,  however,  seem  to  be 
in  receipt  of  wages  that  will  not  buy  such  living 
decency. 

There  are  many  ways  hi  which  the  miner  may 
maintain  conditions  of  living  decency.  He  may 
refrain  from  marrying  or  from  having  children;  his 
wife  may  take  boarders;  when  his  children  grow 
older  they  may  contribute  to  the  family  income; 
iiis  wife  may  work  at  some  regular  occupation;  he 
may  find  extra  work  outside  of  mining  hours ;  or  he 
may  supplement  the  family  income  with  a  cow,  pigs, 
chickens  or  a  truck  patch.  All  these  are  possi- 
bilities. Nevertheless,  the  obligation  remains  upon 
industry  to  pay  a  living  wage  to  its  workers,  and  the 
bald  fact  of  a  wage  scale  largely  below  the  cost  of 
decent  family  living  stares  every  man  with  young 
children  square  hi  the  face. 

From  the  standpoint  of  social  well-being,  every 
man  hi  the  anthracite  region  who  is  receiving  a  wage 
that  is  insufficient  to  buy  physical  health  and 
decency  for  his  family  of  young  children  is  inade- 


114      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

quately    paid.        How  many  such  men  are  there? 
Future  investigations  alone  will  show. 

Are  the  wages  paid  to  American  wage  workers 
sufficient  to  maintain  health  and  decency?  Com- 
pare the  two  statements: 

Cost  of  decent  family  liv-  The  wages  of  adult  males 

ing  in  eastern  industrial  (allowing  for  unemploy- 

centers,  $750  to  $1,000  ment)  $•  less  than   $750, 

per  year.  T^S  less  than  $1,000. 


Nothing  could  show  more  conclusively  the  frightful 
inadequacy  of  American  wages.  The  present  wage 
scale,  paid  to  workers  by  American  industry,  does 
not  enable  millions  of  them  to  give  a  family  of  young 
children  the  simple  decencies  of  life  that  are  nec- 
essary to  the  maintenance  of  health  and  efficiency. 

9.     The  American  Wage  as  a  Business  Proposition 

The  wages  paid  by  American  industry  to  a  great 
body  of  its  workers  are  inadequate  to  provide 
health,  efficiency  and  decency  for  a  moderate-sized 
family.  They  are  even  more  inadequate  when  they 
are  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  up-to-date 
business  practice. 

Many  a  successful  business  man,  who  is  confident 
that  "the  workers  are  paid  all  that  they  are  worth," 
and  that  "  wages  are  far  too  high,  anyway,"  has 
never  stopped  to  analyze  wages  from  a  strictly 
business  point  of  view.  The  wage-earner  is,  hi  real- 
ity, a  business  man.  His  place  of  business  is  his 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      115 

home.  The  object  of  his  business  activity  is  the 
rearing  of  a  family.  To  this  end  the  worker  labors 
during  most  of  his  adult  life. 

Business  men  have  worked  ardently  to  safeguard 
business  interests.  After  centuries  of  experiment, 
they  have  evolved  what  they  regard  as  a  safe  and 
sane  method  of  financial  business  procedure. .  Every 
successful  business  man  tries  to  live  up  to  the  follow- 
ing well-established  formula: 

First.  He  pays  out  of  his  total  returns,  or  gross 
receipts,  the  ordinary  costs  of  doing  business — 
materials,  labor,  repairs  and  the  like.  These  pay- 
ments are  known  as  running  expenses  or  upkeep. 

Second.  After  upkeep  charges  are  paid  he  takes 
the  remainder,  called  gross  income,  and  pays  out  of 
it  the  fixed  charges — taxes,  insurance,  interest  and 
depreciation.9 

Third.  The  business  man,  having  paid  all  of  the 
necessary  expenses  of  doing  business  (the  running 
expenses  and  the  fixed  charges),  has  left  a  fund  (net 
income)  which,  roughly  speaking,  is  the  profits 
of  the  business.  Out  of  this  net  income,  dividends 


9  A  depreciation  charge  is  one  that  is  made  against  the  wearing 
out  of  capital.  A  paper  manufacturer  buys  a  machine  for  which 
he  pays  $1,000.  Experience  tells  him  that  this  machine  will  wear 
out  in  ten  years.  Therefore  the  manufacturer  sets  aside  each 
year  a  sum  which  at  the  end  of  ten  years  will  equal  $1,000  (a  new 
machine).  In  this  way,  the  business  man  keeps  his  capital  intact. 
While  the  individual  machines,  tools  and  the  like  do  wear  out,  the 
accounts  of  the  business  are  so  kept  that  these  pieces  of  capital  will 
be  automatically  replaced  when  they  are  too  old  for  use.  The 
depreciation  charge  is  recognized  everywhere  as  a  legitimate  and 
necessary  fixed  charge  on  business. 


116      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

are  paid,  improvements  and  extensions  of  the  plant 
are  provided  for. 

Fourth.  The  careful  business  man  increases  the 
stability  of  his  business  by  adding  something  to  his 
surplus  or  undivided  profits. 

This  formula  may  be  stated  in  terms  of  business 
bookkeeping.  Revert  for  a  moment  to  the  anthracite 
industry,  from  which  most  of  the  profits  go  to  the 
operating  railroads.  The  Delaware,  Lackawanna 
and  Western  Railroad,  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
anthracite  carriers,  published  these  operating  statis- 
tics for  1912  (Poor's  Manual  of  Railroads,  1914, 
p.  193): 

TABLE  III. — OPERATING  STATISTICS  OF  THE  DELAWARE,  LACKA- 
WANNA AND  WESTERN  RAILROAD,  1912. 

Gross  earnings $37,564,511 

Total  expenses 24,146,423 

Net  earnings $13,418,088 

Other  income 6,054,567 

Gross  income $19,472,755 


Deductions: 

Taxes $1,771,980 

Rentals 5,847,278 

Interest  on  bonds 6,486 

Renewals  and  betterments 1,720,698 

Miscellaneous 84,242 

Dividends 6,028,800 


Total  deductions $15,459,484 


Surplus  for  the  year $4,013,271 

Total  per  cent  earned  on  stock 33 . 17 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      117 

The  bookkeepers  of  the  Lackawanna  begin  with 
the  total  returns  or  gross  earnings  of  $37,000,000. 
From  these  they  deduct  the  expenses  of  business 
upkeep.  To  the  net  earnings  which  remain  they 
add  incidental  income  from  dividends,  rentals,  other 
properties,  etc.  The  total  is  gross  income.  Observe 
that  in  the  operations  of  this  road,  a  third  of  the  gross 
earnings  appears  as  net  earnings,  and  the  gross 
income  of  the  road  is  equal  to  half  the  gross  earnings. 
From  gross  income  is  deducted  taxes,  rentals  and 
interest.  These  are  the  fixed  charges,  obligations 
which  must  be  met  if  the  business  is  to  continue. 
From  gross  income  the  bookkeepers  also  deducted 
$1,750,000  for  renewing  and  improving  the  property 
of  the  road,  as  well  as  $6,000,000  for  dividends. 
After  all  of  the  necessary  deductions  had  been  made, 
$4,000,000  (an  amount  equal  to  11  per  cent  of  the 
gross  earnings)  remained  as  surplus. 

Like  every  carefully  handled  business,  the  Lacka- 
wanna— 

1.  Paid  its  running  expenses. 

2.  Paid  its  fixed  obligations. 

3.  Divided  up  its  profits. 

4.  And  kept  a  nest  egg. 

The  showing  made  by  the  Lackawanna  is  in  one 
sense  exceptional  because  of  the  high  dividends 
paid  by  that  road.  On  the  other  hand,  the  method 
of  carrying  on  business  is  typical  of  the  method 
pursued  by  every  sound  business  organization  in  the 
United  States. 


Suppose  the  wage-earner  who  is  striving  to  support 
a  family  on  a  wage  ranging  from  $2.50  to  $3.50  a 
working  day  ($600  to  $1,000  per  year)  should  apply 
to  the  financing  of  his  family  affairs  the  financial 
formula  adopted  by  any  well-managed  modern 
business.  Since  he  must  allow  for  running  expenses, 
fixed  charges,  dividends  and  surplus,  he  would  pro- 
ceed as  follows: 

First.  He  would  pay  from  the  total  family  income 
the  family  running  expenses — food,  clothing,  housing, 
medicine  and  the  like. 

Second.  From  the  remainder,  his  gross  income, 
he  would  take  interest  on  the  investment  which  has 
been  made  in  bringing  up  and  educating  his  wife  and 
himself;  insurance  against  all  reasonable  con- 
tingencies, such  as  sickness,  accident,  death  and 
unemployment;  and  a  sum  for  depreciation  suffi- 
cient to  compensate  for  the  inevitable  decrease 
in  his  earning  power  and  for  the  old  age  during 
which  he  and  his  wife  can  no  longer  earn  anything. 

Third.  The  remaining  net  income  should  be 
sufficient  to  enable  the  worker  to  pay  himself 
dividends  proportionate  to  the  excessive  risks  which 
he  runs  hi  bringing  a  family  into  the  world  and 
attempting  to  rear  it;  and  sufficient  to  add  at  least 
something  to  the  surplus  which  the  family  lays  aside 
to  provide  against  such  untoward  events  as  births, 
deaths  and  prolonged  sickness. 
-  A  large  percentage  of  wage-earners  receive  a 
wage  which  will  not  pay  even  decent  running 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      119 

expenses.  No  business  man  would  attempt  to  con- 
duct a  business  on  a  basis  that  would  pay  only  the 
flimsiest  of  upkeep  charges,  yet  the  bulk  of  wage- 
earners  find  themselves  in  exactly  that  predicament. 
The  legitimate  fixed  charges  of  business — interest 
on  the  investment,  adequate  insurance  and  deprecia- 
tion— are  far  above  the  reach  of  most  wage-workers 
who  have  a  young  family  to  support. 

Place  before  any  level-headed  man  of  affairs  this 
proposition:  "I  have  a  business  which  is  barely 
able  to  pay  running  expenses.  We  cannot  meet  our 
fixed  charges,  and  our  wildest  flights  of  imagination 
have  never  carried  us  as  far  as  dividends  and  surplus. 
Will  you  join  in  the  venture?"  The  statement  is 
grotesque,  yet  it  sets  forth  the  financial  position  of  a 
great  body  of  American  wage-earners. 

As  a  business  proposition,  for  a  family,  the 
ordinary  American  wage  is  absurdly  inadequate. 
No  business  man  would  consider  it.  It  violates 
every  business  standard  which  the  practice  of  the 
modern  man  of  affairs  recognizes  as  legitimate. 
Every  concept  of  modern  business  management 
cries  "shame"  at  the  very  thought  of  the  proposition 
which  the  American  wage  scale  presents  to  millions 
of  its  workers. 

10.    The  Social  Implications  of  the  American  Wage 

The  first,  and  probably  the  most  fundamental, 
social  objection  which  may  be  raised  against  the 
present  wage  scale  is  that  it  fails  ^very  largely  to 


120      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

stimulate  the  ambition  of  the  worker.  There  are 
two  reasons  for  this  failure.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
wage  scale  is  so  rigid  that  the  man  doing  good  work 
is  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  the  man  doing 
poor  work.  This  holds  true  of  piece-rate  payment 
as  well  as  of  time-rate  payment.  The  rule  of  most 
producing  establishments  is  "  anything  that  will  pass 
the  inspector."  Furthermore,  the  individual  may 
work  as  hard  as  he  pleases,  devoting  all  of  his  energy 
to  the  work  in  hand.  Despite  this,  he  is  unable  to 
raise  his  wage  rate  and  very  frequently  is  unable  to 
increase  his  wages. 

The  wage  scale  is  fixed  either  by  an  agreement 
between  the  employer  and  the  union  or  by  custom 
and  common  consent.  No  one  even  pretends  that 
there  is  a  definite  relation  between  the  values 
produced  by  the  worker  and  the  wage  which  he 
secures. 

The  worker  is  not  paid  in  proportion  to  his  pro- 
duct. Wages  are  never  fixed  on  that  basis,  with 
this  single  exception — that  no  employer  can  afford 
to  pay  any  more  in  wages  than  a  group  of  men  are 
producing  hi  product.  The  law  of  monopoly,  "all 
that  the  traffic  will  bear,"  is  the  law  which  fixes  the 
American  wage. 

Another  consequence  follows  from  the  ruthless 
bargaining  of  the  competitive  labor  market.  The 
bargain  takes  place  between  the  employer  and  a 
worker,  irrespective  of  social  obligations.  The 
consequences  are  doubly  disastrous  to  the  man  with 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      121 

the  family  depending  upon  him.  Industry  does  not 
inquire  into  a  worker's  social  obligations.  It  simply 
asks  whether  he  is  able  to  do  the  work,  and  at  what 
price.  The  competition  of  the  labor  market  does 
the  rest.  There  is  no  relation  between  the  social 
(family)  needs  of  a  man  and  the  wage  which  he 
receives.  Wages  are  fixed  wholly  independent  of 
social  relations. 

The  American  wage  is  anti-social.  The  present 
system  of  wage  payment  fails  to  stimulate  workers 
to  industry  and  thrift  because  it  has  not  given  them 
a  reward  hi  proportion  to  their  exertions  and  ability. 
There  is  no  relation  between  product  and  wages. 
Rather  wages  are  fixed  by  competition  and  monopoly. 
The  present  wage  scale  fails  completely  to  provide  a 
return  hi  proportion  to  social  needs.  The  simplest 
requirements  of  social  progress  call  for  ambition,  for 
justice,  and  for  the  provision  of  health  necessities. 
The  present  American  wage  scale  offends  even  these 
primitive  social  standards. 

The  American  wage,  examined  from  any  point  of 
view,  fails  to  provide  a  sufficient  return  to  the  wage- 
earner  who  is  carrying  the  burden  of  a  young  family. 

American  industry  pays  to  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  wage-earners  a  wage  of  less  than  $1,000  a 
year.  Even  where  no  allowance  is  made  for  unem- 
ployment, the  wage  rates  of  three-quarters  of  the 
men  fall  below  $750  a  year.  Perhaps  three  wage- 
earners  in  each  hundred  are  paid  over  $25  per  week 
(a  yearly  rate  of  $1,300).  Compared  with  the  sums 


122      THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE 

which  are  met  with  in  the  business  world,  the  wage 
of  the  workers  is  small. 

The  wage  rates  paid  by  industry,  placed  side  by 
side  with  the  cost  of  family  health  and  decency, 
reveal  an  appalling  situation.  In  great  numbers  of 
cases,  the  wages  paid  by  industry  to  its  adult  male 
workers  are  insufficient  to  provide  for  the  health 
,and  decency  of  a  moderate-sized  family. 

American  wages,  as  a  business  proposition,  are 
even  less  adequate  than  they  are  for  the  provision 
of  health  and  decency.  The  ordinary  principles  of 
sound  American  business  practice  are  all  violated  hi 
the  financing  of  the  worker's  family. 

There  are  certain  well-recognized  principles  of 
social  expediency:  that  industry  shall  pay  a  wage 
that  will  maintain  the  efficiency  of  its  workers;  that 
wages  must  prevent  poverty  and  dependence;  and 
that  families  must  be  able  to  live  as  self-respecting 
units  in  the  community.  These  principles  underlie 
the  sane  conduct  of  society.  Each  of  them  is 
violated  by  the  present  American  wage  scale. 

11.     The  Penalty  of  Labor 

The  major  portion  of  the  world's  work  is  done  by 
the  wage-earners.  The  work  of  the  world  cannot  go 
on  without  them  and  their  efforts.  They  are  the 
human  power  .behind  the  Industrial  Regime,  and 
yet,  after  noting  the  facts,  who  would  be  a  wage- 
earner  if  he  could  be  anything  else? 

The  Industrial  Regime  places  a  penalty  on  work. 


THE  LABORER  AND  HIS  HIRE      123 

There  is  the  pittance  return — pitifully  small,  econom- 
ically and  socially  inadequate — paid  to  millions  of 
workers  in  exchange  for  their  energy  and  time 
during  the  best  part  of  each  day  and  the  best  part 
of  their  lives.  No  student  of  the  problem  can  escape 
the  feeling  that  this  wage  is  wholly  insufficient  in 
comparison  with  the  contribution  that  the  worker 
makes  toward  the  upkeep  of  the  Industrial  Regime. 
The  most  elementary  considerations  of  social 
justice  and  the  simplest  forms  of  social  expediency 
would  seem  to  demand  that  the  worker  receive  a 
minimum  wage  sufficient  to  provide  for  health, 
efficiency,  decency  and  self-respect;  and  that  the 
return  be  rendered  stable  by  adequate  provisions 
against  the  vicissitudes  of  industrial  and  social 
life.  The  minimum  wage  and  social  insurance 
would  seem  to  be  the  barest  beginnings  of  a  policy 
of  economic  justice  applied  to  wages. 


CHAPTER  III 
INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

1.     The  Call  for  Leadership 

THE  rank  and  file  who  do  the  work  of  the  indus- 
trial world  must  have  adequate  wages.  No 
need  is  greater.  At  the  same  time,  wages  cannot 
be  paid  by  any  form  of  organized  industry  unless 
leaders  are  found  competent  to  direct  the  current  of 
industrial  affairs. 

The  necessity  for  leadership  is  not  confined  to  the 
fields  of  industry.  It  is  felt  in  every  realm  of  human 
activity.  The  whole  world  is  voicing  its  call  for 
leaders.  Eager  eyes  scan  the  ranks  of  the  new 
generation.  Breathless  throngs  turn  hither  and 
thither.  The  people  are  seeking  a  Moses  who  will 
lead  them  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  away  from 
the  perils  of  the  wilderness,  and  into  the  promised 
land. 

Nameless  dangers  lurk  hi  the  portentous  issues 
that  confront  western  civilization.  Never  were  the 
problems  of  life  more  pressing — more  insistent. 
Never  wras  the  need  for  intelligent  leadership  more 
keenly  felt  by  the  high  and  the  low  of  every  nation. 

Men  for  centuries  have  declared  their  belief  in 
Truth,  Justice  and  Mercy.  There  is  no  yearning  of 

(124) 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  125 

the  human  heart  that  is  more  compelling  than  the 
yearning  for  these  things,  yet  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  determining  what  interpretation  shall  be 
placed  on  Mercy,  Justice  and  Truth,  hi  the  face  of 
the  momentous  problems  that  grow  out  of  the  use  of 
the  machine  seem,  at  times,  to  be  almost  insu- 
perable. 

This  meeting  place  of  iron  and  fire — this  machine 
—how  can  it  best  be  made  a  servant  of  the 
commonweal? 

This  vast  new  system — modern  industry — built 
with  machinery  and  cemented  together  by  finance 
and  industrial  organization,  how  can  it  best  be 
molded  so  that  it  may  serve  the  commonweal? 

This  world-prevalent,  competitive  struggle  for 
foreign  markets,  growing  out  of  the  extended  use  of 
the  machine  and  the  industrial  system  and  of  the 
exploitation  of  home  labor  and  the  home  consumer, 
now  flowering  in  Europe  and  blighting  whole  peoples 
—how  shall  it  be  made  to  serve  the  common- 
weal? 

Will  these  new  tools  of  civilization,  these  steel- 
shod  messengers  of  the  gods  that  man's  inventive 
genius  has  summoned  into  being,  minister  to  the 
human  race  or  destroy  it?  Can  man  control  the 
work  of  his  brain?  Can  he  guide  the  forces  of  the 
universe  that  he  has  harnessed  to  the  car  of  his 
progress? 

The  answers  to  these  and  to  all  other  questions 
of  like  tenor  depend  upon  the  leaders  that  the  human 


126  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

race  can  raise  up  to  do  its  bidding.  If  the  men  and 
women  who  are  called  upon  to  assume  the  responsi- 
bilities of  directing  the  activities  of  human  society 
prove  equal  to  the  task  of  solving  these  questions, 
western  civilization  has  taken  a  great  step  hi  advance 
of  its  predecessors  in  the  conquest  of  nature  and  the 
ennobling  of  man.  Where  are  the  leaders  with 
capacity  sufficient  to  do  this  work?  How  shall  they 
be  discovered  and  chosen? 

The  leaders  of  a  nation  must  be  the  greatest  among 
its  great  men.  Only  they  can  save  the  tunes  from 
self-destruction. 

Let  the  great  men  be  found  and  set  to  their  tasks, 
and  the  nation  need  have  no  fear.  "No  time  need 
have  gone  to  rum,"  writes  Carlyle,  "could  it  have 
found  a  man  great  enough,  a  man  wise  and  good 
enough;  wisdom  to  discern  truly  what  the  time 
wanted,  valor  to  lead  it  on  the  right  road  thither; 
these  are  the  salvation  of  any  time.  But  I  liken 
common  languid  times,  with  their  unbelief,  distress, 
perplexity,  ...  to  dry  dead  fuel,  waiting  for  the 
lightning  out  of  Heaven  that  shall  kindle  it;  the 
great  man  with  his  free  force  direct  out  of  God's 
own  hand  is  the  lightning."1 

These  tunes  need  leadership,  if  any  times  ever 
did.  Here  are  the  unbelief,  distress,  perplexity. 
Here  the  dry  dead  fuel.  Where  are  they  with  the 
free  force  direct  from  God?  We  bend  our  energy 
to  the  search  for  leadership. 

1  "Heroes  and  Hero  Worship." 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  127 

2.     The  Qualities  of  Leadership 

aThe  qualities  that  are  necessary  in  the  industrial 
leader  are  the  same  as  those  required  of  the  leader 
in  any  other  branch  of  social  activity.  The  leaders 
are  the  directing  force.  Whether  there  is  a  road  to 
build,  a  bank  to  manage,  a  city  to  govern,  a  factory 
to  organize,  a  railroad  to  develop,  a  mercantile  plant 
to  superintend,  or  a  river  to  tunnel,  the  work  must  be 
done  by  the  men  hi  the  community  who  are  best 
equipped  with  the  talent  and  the  training  that  are 
required  for  the  particular  task  that  is  at  hand. 
>  The  leader  needs  energy,  vigor  and  enthusiasm. 
These  qualities  are  indispensable,  because  upon 
them  is  based  that  tireless  effort  without  which 
leadership  degenerates  into  a  formal,  meaningless 
cult.  Among  the  aristocracies  of  the  world,  from 
which  leaders  are  picked  because  of  family  connec- 
tions, and  without  any  reference  to  ability,  there  are 
many  leaders  in  name  who  are  led  by  their  lackeys. 
They  have  none  of  that  mighty  driving  force — the 
power  of  purpose — that  makes  the  leader  leap  to  the 
front  because  he  is  a  leader. 

Physical  energy,  mental  vigor  and  the  contagious 
enthusiasm  that  accompanies  them  are  born  in  the 
man.  They  must  be  found,  cultivated  and  directed 
before  they  become  effective. 
\  Leadership  is  not  all  force,  either  brute  or  intel- 
lectual. The  personality  of  leadership  is  built  of 
another  group  of  elements  that  make  up  the  spiritual 
side  of  the  leader's  equipment.  These  elements  are 


128          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

courage,  insight  and  vision — forces  that  enable  the 
leader  to  understand  those  around  him  and  to  point 
out  to  them  the  path  that  lies  ahead. 

The  great  leaders  of  history  have  possessed,  above 
all  else,  the  power  to  inspire  trust.  They  radiated 
confidence  as  the  sun  radiates  heat.  They  looked 
into  the  faces  around  them  and  understood.  They 
looked  into  the  future  and  understood.  Those 
about,  feeling,  by  the  touch  of  personality  the 
completeness  of  understanding,  have  accepted  and 
followed. 

The  spiritual  qualities  of  leadership  are  far 
more  important  than  the  physical  qualities.  They 
are  the  breath  of  God  in  the  nostrils  of  the 
leader. 

During  the  past  century  the  United  States  has 
been  developing  through  the  potency  of  its  resources, 
of  its  inventions.  It  has  been  driven  forward  by  the 
very  exuberance  of  its  youth.  The  time  has  come 
when  a  new  thing  is  needed.  It  is  no  longer  possible 
for  the  nation  to  drift  haphazard  before  every  wind 
of  doctrine.  Maturity  follows  youth;  cosmos 
replaces  chaos.  There  must  be  understanding  and 
direction.  The  people  must  know  whither  they  are 
growing.  Mother  Nature  cannot  be  looked  to  for 
all  of  the  good  things.  Her  tingling  life  blood  that 
has  nurtured  us  will  suffice  no  longer.  The  life  of 
a  mature  nation  rests  upon  a  basis  very  different 
from  that  which  supported  the  life  of  its  child- 
hood. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  129 

3.    America's  Leadership  Heritage 

The  founders  of  the  American  nation  have  left 
for  their  descendants  a  virile  heritage  in  all  that 
makes  for  leadership.  They  led,  and  led  mightily. 

The  early  colonists  were  seeking  political  and 
religious  liberty.  They  had  rebelled  against  the  old 
tyrannies  of  Europe  and  were  looking  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  establish  a  social  order  that  would  yield 
larger  possibilities  to  mankind.  Therefore  they 
ordained  a  government  of  the  people  under  which, 
free  from  the  dictation  of  any  established  religion, 
men  should  be  at  liberty  to  worship  God  as  they 
saw  fit. 

Behind  the  acts  of  these  early  settlers  there  were  a 
number  of  great  ideals  for  which  they  were  willing 
to  sacrifice  and  suffer.  In  the  pursuit  of  these 
ideals  they  came  to  a  new  world  to  build  a  new 
civilization. 

The  new  order  was  founded  upon  the  proposition 
that  all  men  have  an  equal  right  to  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Not  equality,  but  equality 
of  opportunity  was  the  germ-thought  in  this  rebirth 
of  civilization. 

The  colonists  built  strongly  and  courageously. 
When  the  test  came,  when  the  king,  representing  all 
those  things  that  were  sacred  and  venerable  because 
they  were  old,  commanded  his  subjects  in  the  colonies 
to  obey  his  laws,  they  took  up  arms  and  made  their 
reply  at  the  cannon's  mouth.  The  Revolution  was 
the  answer  of  the  New  Civilization  to  the  Older 

8 


130          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

Order  of  Social  Life.  Instead  of  doing  what  they 
were  told  to  do,  as  all  faithful  subjects  must,  these 
men  and  women  who  had  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
new  world  did  what  they  believed  to  be  right,  acting 
on  the  principle  that  ideals  of  human  liberty  are 
more  important  than  the  word  even  of  a  king. 

The  men  who  organized  and  led  the  Revolution 
were  guilty  of  treason,  the  worst  of  all  the  offenses 
that  may  be  committed  against  organized  society. 
They  were  guilty  of  rebellion  against  their  duly 
constituted  ruler.  They  broke  all  of  the  laws  of 
their  government,  destroyed  the  established  order, 
overthrew  precedent  and  backed  up  their  position  by 
killing  the  officers  that  the  king  sent  to  restore 
order  and  enforce  the  laws.  There  was  scarcely  an 
offense,  from  the  tossing  of  privately  owned  tea  into 
Boston  Harbor  to  treason  and  open  rebellion,  of 
which  the  colonists  were  not  guilty.  Even  though 
they  may  have  believed  that  they  were  tearing  down 
hi  order  to  build  a  new  structure  better  than  the  old, 
they  were  still  guilty  hi  the  eyes  of  the  law — so 
guilty  that  they  deserved  only  the  scaffold. 

The  spirit  that  the  colonists  showed  hi  their 
answer  to  English  injustice,  they  displayed  in  a 
multitude  of  forms  during  their  conquest  of  the 
American  continent.  There  was  a  wilderness  to  be 
subdued  and  a  new  world  to  be  built.  These  rugged, 
virile  men  and  women  fell  to  their  task  with  a  will. 
One  of  the  early  frontiersmen,  in  his  autobiography, 
tells  how  his  father  moved  his  family  into  a  territory 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  131 

shortly  after  an  Indian  massacre.  The  men  farmed 
with  guns  beside  them.  The  children  were  not 
allowed  to  leave  the  stockade.  Danger  lurked  every- 
where. What  were  the  qualities  that  made  those 
men  succeed  in  the  face  of  such  frightful  difficulties? 
Thomas  Ewing  names  them.  "The  population  of 
the  garrison  was  made  up  of  incongruous  materials 
agreeing  in  little  except  poverty,  courage  and 
energy."2  Poverty,  courage  and  energy  were  the 
life-might  of  the  frontier. 

The  early  Americans  subdued  a  wilderness  as  no 
wilderness  had  ever  been  subdued  before.  They 
invented  their  means  of  subjugation  as  the  conquest 
proceeded.  LTo  those  who  tried  to  block  their  pro- 
gress, they  replied  with  messengers  of  steel.  They 
would  not  brook  restraint.  Courageous,  energetic, 
they  forged  ahead  in  the  settled  conviction  of 
righteousness. 

They  overthrew,  tore  down  and  destroyed.  They 
defied  authority  and  threw  precedent  to  the  winds. 
It  is  because  of  these  things  that  we  honor  them. 
They  were  leading  the  world  toward  a  nobler 
civilization. 

These  early  builders  of  the  American  nation  never 
let  "I  dare  not  wait  upon  I  would" — they  had  the 
soul  of  leadership.  They  were  filled  with  inde- 
pendence, initiative,  courage  and  faith.  They  were 


2  "The  Autobiography  of  Thomas  Ewing,"  edited  by  C.  L. 
Martzholff.  Ohio  State  Historical  Society  Publications,  Vol. 
21,  p.  9. 


132  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

ready  "to  brook  the  eternal  devil"  if  need  be,  to 
defend  the  things  in  which  they  believed. 

This  is  the  heritage  of  leadership  that  comes  down 
to  the  American  people.  These  were  the  founders 
of  our  civilization  and  our  government.  They  had 
vigor,  energy,  enthusiasm,  courage,  insight  and 
vision.  They  took  orders  from  no  one.  They  did 
what  they  believed  to  be  right.  They  measured 
their  duty  and  performed  it  fearlessly  and  nobly. 
They  were  the  men  who  had  turned  their  backs  on 
the  past  and  who  were  looking  into  the  future  with 
the  power  of  purpose  hi  their  eyes. 

4.     The  Duties  of  Leadership 

The  great  leader  is  the  great  server. 

The  leader  derives  his  commission  to  leadership 
from  the  special  qualities  that  enable  him  to  be 
of  service  to  his  fellows.  The  commonweal  demands 
that  the  great  burdens  and  the  pressing  issues  of 
life  be  met.  The  leader  asserts  his  right  to  leader- 
ship because  he,  better  than  any  other,  can  direct 
the  activities  of  his  fellows  along  the  path  that  leads 
to  a  successful  solution  of  the  problems  by  which 
they  are  confronted.  The  great  leader  is  the  great 
server.  "If  anyone  would  be  great  among  you,  let 
him  be  your  minister."  The  greater  the  service, 
the  greater  the  leadership. 

The  modern  community  recognizes  five  groups  of 
leaders  or  professions.  The  five  professions  as  they 
are  known  in  every  civilized  country  of  the  world 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  133 

are  the  soldier,  teacher,  physician,  lawyer  and 
merchant.  On  certain  occasions  it  is  the  duty  of 
each  of  these  professions  to  die  for  the  community. 
"The  soldier,  rather  than  leave  his  post  in  battle. 
The  physician,  rather  than  leave  his  post  in  plague. 
The  pastor,  rather  than  teach  falsehood.  The  law- 
yer, rather  than  countenance  injustice.  The  mer- 
chant— what  is  his  due  occasion  of  death?"3 

The  merchant,  a  term  that  Ruskin  uses  to  refer  to 
all  who  are  engaged  in  any  form  of  industrial  pursuit, 
is  ranked  in  the  professional  classes.  He  is  con- 
stituted one  of  the  leaders,  and  well  he  may  be,  since 
he  is  occupied  hi  one  of  the  most  vital  of  all  functions 
— feeding,  clothing  and  housing  the  community  and 
providing  for  its  welfare. 

11  Observe  the  merchant's  function,"  Ruskin  goes 
on  to  say,  "is  to  provide  for  the  nation.  It  is  no 
more  his  function  to  get  profit  for  himself  out  of 
that  provision  than  it  is  a  clergyman's  function  to 
get  his  stipend."  The  leader  of  industry,  like  the 
leader  in  any  other  profession,  must  look  upon  him- 
self as  the  servant  of  those  people — called  consumers 
— for  whom  the  things  that  he  produces  are  intended. 

The  merchant,  therefore,  appears  in  a  wholly  new 
r61e.  He  is  proudest  when  he  is  able  to  do  the  most 
for  those  who  are  depending  upon  him  for  the 
necessaries  of  life. 


1  "Unto  This  Last,"  John  Ruskin.  Were  Ruskin  writing  today, 
he  would  doubtless  add  a  sixth  profession — that  of  "social  organ- 
izer." The  union  leader,  the  political  boss,  the  social  worker,  and 
many  others  of  the  same  type  are  giving  themselves  over  to  the 
co-ordination  of  social  forces. 


134  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

The  moral  duty  of  the  leader  has  long  been  estab- 
lished in  the  older  branches  of  the  professional 
world.  Upon  the  sea,  for  example,  the  rule  that 
binds  the  leader  to  his  crew  and  his  passengers  is 
as  absolute  as  any  rule  of  human  conduct  that  is 
known  to  the  human  race.  Ruskin  is  interested  to 
inquire  why  this  same  rule  of  leadership  morality 
will  not  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  leaders  of 
industry.  "And  as  the  captain  of  a  ship  is  bound 
to  be  the  last  man  to  leave  his  ship  in  case  of  wreck, 
and  to  share  his  last  crust  with  the  sailors  hi  case 
of  famine,  so  the  manufacturer,  in  any  commercial 
crisis  or  distress,  is  bound  to  take  the  suffering  of 
it  with  his  men,  and  even  to  take  more  of  it  for  him- 
self than  he  allows  his  men  to  feel."4 

Industrialism  is  new.  The  relation  of  the  indus- 
trial leaders 'to  the  remainder  of  the  community  is 
not  yet  well  established.  As  this  relation  works 
itself  out  in  the  coming  years,  one  thing  seems  cer- 
tain— the  industrial  leader  must  be  the  industrial 
servant,  both  of  the  consumers  and  of  the  workers. 
Like  all  of  the  professions,  leadership  in  industry,  to 
command  the  respect  and  confidence  of  those  who 
are  seeking  for  guidance,  must  be  built  upon  ideals 
of  service. 

5.     The  Opportunities  for  Leadership 

There  is  a  saying  that  has  come  down  from  the 
tune  when  the  frontier  was  still  a  factor  in  national 
« "Unto  This  Last." 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  135 

life,  "There  is  plenty  of  room  at  the  top."  The 
truth  is  that  the  modern  organization  of  industry 
calls  for  a  very  few  men  at  the  top  and  a  great  many 
men  below.  This  system  of  industrial  organization 
is  just  as  well  understood  as  the  organization  of  a 
section  on  the  railroad.  There  is  one  foreman  in 
charge  of  a  number  of  workers.  Go  into  any  mine, 
store  or  factory  and  you  will  find  a  certain  number 
of  superintendents,  foremen,  skilled  and  unskilled 
workers.  This  number  will  vary  from  one  industry 
to  another,  but  in  the  same  industry  it  will  be  fairly 
constant. 

The  traditions  of  American  life  had  their  origins 
at  a  time  when  the  young  man  walked  into  the 
bank,  swept  the  floor,  ran  errands  and  by  a  logical 
process  worked  up  to  the  presidency.  The  feat  was 
not  so  difficult  either,  because  there  were  only  four 
other  men  hi  the  bank.  Another  young  man  walked 
into  a  shop,  learned  his  trade,  and  by  the  time  he 
was  forty,  had  a  thriving  shop  of  his  own.  But  then 
there  were  only  a  half-dozen  men  employed  in  the 
shop.  Still  another  man  apprenticed  himself  to  the 
miller.  Three  men  and  a  boy  ran  the  mill.  It  was 
not  a  great  task  for  the  boy  to  get  to  the  top  as  the 
years  went  by.  It  is  not  long  since  the  industries  of 
the  country  were  all  organized  on  a  small  scale  basis 
that  placed  the  man  hi  the  ranks  very  near  to  the 
man  at  the  top. 

The  era  of  small  scale  industry  has  passed  in  all 
of  the  important  industries  except  agriculture.  With 


136  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

the  passing  of  small  scale  industry  has  gone  the 
abundant  room  at  the  top. 

The  railroads  of  the  United  States  are  highly 
organized,  and  although  there  are  no  manufacturing 
industries  in  which  the  problems  presented  are 
exactly  like  the  problems  of  railroading,  the  census 
figures  indicate  that  the  larger  and  more  highly 
evolved  industries  tend  to  approximate  the  conditions 
hi  the  railroad  industry. 

The  figures  for  1913  (Statistical  Abstract,  1914, 
p.  267)  show  that  there  were  4,398  general  officers 
in  the  employ  of  the  American  railroads.  This  is  the 
smallest  number  of  general  officers  reported  in  any 
year  since  1890,  when  the  figures  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  were  first  compiled. 
Assume,  for  convenience  of  discussion,  that  all  of 
these  general  officers  are  "at  the  top."  In  1895 
there  were  5,407  general  officers,  or  one  for  every 
145  employees.  In  1913  there  was  one  general 
officer  for  each  413  employees.  This  change  has 
been  brought  about  in  a  period  of  nineteen  years, 
beginning  at  a  tune  when  the  railroads  were  already 
highly  organized.  In  these  two  decades  the  room  at 
the  top  has  narrowed  very  perceptibly. 

During  the  same  years  the  number  of  "other 
officers" — men  half-way  up — has  increased  rapidly. 
There  were  2,534  hi  1895,  and  10,706  in  1913.  The 
"other  officers"  are,  of  course,  not  men  "at  the 
top."  They  play  their  part  as  units  in  a  vast 
machine,  and  they  do  its  bidding  with  little  oppor- 
tunity to  direct  or  to  decide. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  137 

The  ratio  between  the  number  of  general  officers 
and  the  total  number  of  railroad  employees  will 
probably  grow  smaller  as  time  goes  on  and  the  rail- 
road interests  are  consolidated.  Like  all  other 
business,  railroading  is  managed  more  scientifically 
and  more  centrally.  The  result  is  a  steadily 
dwindling  room  at  the  top. 

The  ratio  of  general  officers  to  total  employees — 
1  to  413 — does  not  mean  that  the  individual 
employee  has  one  chance  in  413  to  become  a  general 
officer,  and  for  several  reasons.  First,  many  of  the 
men  engaged  in  the  operation  of  trains  have  a  life 
span  far  smaller  than  that  of  the  general  officer. 
As  a  rule,  the  workers  employed  by  the  railroad  at  a 
wage  of  less  than  three  dollars  a  day,  at  any  given 
age  have  a  death  rate  about  twice  as  high  as  the 
death  rate  for  that  group  of  the  population  to  which 
the  general  officers  belong.  In  the  second  place,  no 
consistent  effort  is  made  to  determine  whether  the 
various  grades  of  employees  have  in  them  the 
making  of  general  officers.  Third,  the  general  officers 
are  not  all  picked  from  the  ranks.  There  is  a  grow- 
ing tendency  in  railroading,  as  hi  every  other  busi- 
ness, to  give  the  preference  to  the  trained  man. 
Besides,  when  the  division  superintendent  hires  a 
section  hand,  flagman,  mechanic  or  brakeman,  he 
does  not  want  a  prospective  general  officer,  but 
rather  a  man  who  will  stay  at  his  assigned  task 
and  become  highly  efficient  there. 

The  room  at  the  top  is  narrow  and  narrowing. 


138  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

There  is  a  small  number  above  and  a  vast  throng 
below.  Even  if  these  above  were  all  picked  from  the 
ranks  below,  the  room  at  the  top  would  be  small 
indeed  for  the  average  man.  The  Industrial  Regime, 
as  it  is  now  organized,  requires  a  few  leaders  and  a 
very  large  number  of  persons  who  must  always  be 
followers. 

The  organized,  highly  specialized  Industrial  R6- 
gime  has  created  a  new  feudalism.  The  children  of 
the  men  higher  up  have  an  excellent  chance  to  suc- 
ceed their  fathers.  The  children  of  the  men  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pyramid  of  industrial  organization 
have  little  real  opportunity  to  do  anything  except 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  their  fathers.  The  rewards 
of  the  men  higher  up  enable  them  to  give  to  their 
children  a  generous  taste  of  the  good  things  of  life. 
Many  of  the  men  at  the  bottom  are  fortunate  if 
they  can  secure  for  their  families  the  barest  neces- 
saries of  existence. 

The  room  at  the  top  is  so  narrow  that  the  man  at 
the  bottom  sees  it  as  a  hair-line.  As  the  organization 
of  industry  is  perfected,  even  the  hair-line  dwindles. 

The  difference  between  chance  and  probability  is 
significant. 

Every  boy  born  in  the  United  States  has  a  chance 
to  be  President.  The  facts  show  that  the  probabilities 
are  far  greater  that  a  boy  will  live  to  be  a  hundred 
years  old  than  that  he  will  be  President.  The  chance 
is  there.  Theoretically,  any  boy  may  be  President. 
Practically,  about  9,999,999  boys  out  of  every 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  139 

10,000,000  will  not  be  President.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  room  at  the  top  of  the  Industrial 
Regime.  All  have  a  chance  to  get  there,  but  in 
practice,  very  few  ever  will. 

Since  the  duties  of  leadership  are  being  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  so  small  a  number  of  people, 
it  becomes  increasingly  important  to  determine  that 
these  few  are  the  men  and  women  best  qualified  to 
assume  the  duties  of  leadership. 

6.     The  Position  of  the  Industrial  Leader 

Under  the  centralization  of  industrial  control  in 
the  hands  of  the  financial  interests  there  is  little  real 
independence  in  the  business  world  outside  of  the 
men  who  wield  financial  power.  And  even  these 
men  must  be  described  as  interdependent  rather 
than  independent. 

The  men  highest  up — the  presidents,  vice-presi- 
dents and  general  managers — are  bound  together  by 
the  tenacious  power  of  common  interests  and  obliga- 
tions. Common  opportunity  and  common  necessity 
alike  lead  the  men  who  occupy  even  the  most  exalted 
stations  in  the  industrial  world  to  depend  upon  their 
fellows  for -support  and  to  accept  their  counsel  in 
regard  to  all  matters  of  moment. 

Perhaps  among  the  important  affiliations  that  tie 
the  industrial  leader  hand  and  foot,  none  is  more 
omnipresent  than  the  duty  which  he  owes  to  "  Prop- 
erty." Inevitably  this  is  so.  The  managers, 
directors,  superintendents  and  presidents  are  hired 


140          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

by  the  owners  of  the  property  to  make  the  business 
pay — that  is,  to  make  it  return  money  on  the  invest- 
ment. The  independent  business  man  who,  as  he 
says,  is  not  in  business  for  his  health,  means  to  make 
his  business  pay.  The  leaders  of  industry  are  the 
representatives  of  property,  and  as  such,  their  chief 
concern  is  to  safeguard  property  interests. 

Just  how  far  this  attitude  departs  from  a  position 
of  true  community  leadership  may  be  gathered  from 
a  contrast  between  the  Round  Table  of  King  Arthur 
and  of  the  modern  board  of  directors. 

The  men  who  sat  around  the  table  with  King 
Arthur  lived  "to  crush  all  wrongers  of  the  realm." 
Each  man  at  that  kingly  board  was  sworn  to  "Live 
pure,  speak  true,  right  wrong."  Their  purposes 
and  aims  were  expressed  in  the  most  exalted  terms. 
They  led  in  ideals,  hi  virtue,  in  courage.  They  were 
the  servants  of  a  great  purpose — Truth  and  Justice. 
The  directors  of  the  modern  corporation  gather 
about  their  table  with  one  object — "Six  per  cent  or 
better." 

7.     The  Class  Consciousness  of  the  Leaders 

The  leaders  of  industry  owe  their  first  allegiance 
to  property.  As  an  immediate  result  of  this 
property-fealty,  there  has  developed  a  virile  class 
feeling  among  the  leaders  of  industry. 

A  lawyer  who,  during  the  twelve  years  of  his 
practice,  had  never  taken  a  case  on  any  except  the 
employer's  side,  decided  to  help  the  Street  Railway 


THE   HAND   OF   FATE 

The  rich  and  idle  pleasure-seekers  at  an  orgy  are  terrified  when  one 
of  the  wretched  laboring  class  who  support  the  floor  of  pleasure  suc- 
ceeds in  breaking  his  fist  through  in  threat.  (Painting  by  William 
Balfour  Ker.  Copr.  by  J.  A.  Mitchell.) 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  141 

Union  of  his  city  in  its  effort  to  get  more  pay.  He 
wished  to  bring  before  the  Arbitration  Board  some 
employers  from  other  fields  of  activity,  who  would 
testify  as  to  the  wages  paid  by  them  in  their  indus- 
tries. He  could  get  the  facts  readily  enough,  but  he 
wished  to  bring  the  men  themselves  into  the  pro- 
ceedings, to  add  the  weight  of  their  personalities 
to  the  facts.  The  first  man  that  he  approached 
made  car  wheels  for  the  street  railway  company. 
The  second  said,  "Of  course  you  can  see  that  if  I 
did  this,  I  would  put  myself  in  the  position  of  help- 
ing out  the  union,  and  our  policy  is  opposed  to 
unionism."  A  third  said,  "You  will  readily  under- 
stand that  I  cannot  array  myself  against  the  employ- 
ing interests  of  the  city."  This  lawyer  went  to  his 
friends,  one  by  one.  He  knew  them  in  his  club,  his 
church  and  his  neighborhood.  Not  one  of  them 
would  appear  in  the  case. 

"I  never  knew  that  such  pressure  could  be  brought 
to  bear  as  was  laid  on  me  to  get  out  of  that  case," 
said  the  lawyer.  "It  has  cost  me  some  of  my  best 
clients.  They  say  that  I  am  on  the  other  side." 

A  group  of  men  were  discussing  the  rate  of  wages 
paid  by  the  local  street  railway  company.  The 
wages  were  low  and  everyone  there  knew  it.  One 
of  the  wise  business  men  present  smiled.  "Do  you 
know,"  he  remarked,  "the  stock  of  the  traction 
company  is  well  scattered.  There  is  not  a  bank  nor 
a  trust  company  nor  a  holder  of  securities  in  this 
town  that  has  not  a  little  block  of  the  stock.  There 


142          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

is  not  a  banker  nor  a  merchant  nor  a  rising  young 
lawyer  in  the  community  that  would  dare  to  say 
that  the  wages  should  be  raised.  The  diffused  stock 
ownership  puts  every  important  interest  in  this  town 
on  the  side  of  the  company." 

The  industrial  leader  is  a  part  of  the  "system," 
hi  the  same  way  that  a  man  is  a  part  of  an  order. 
Each  group  of  people  has  its  objects,  and  the  objects 
of  the  Industrial  Regime  is  the  making  of  profits, 
and  the  conservation  of  the  propertied  interests  of 
the  community.  "Business  is  business,"  and  the 
aim  of  all  business  is  frankly  recognized  as  the  prop- 
erty returns  which  can  be  secured  as  a  result  of  its 
operations. 

The  industrial  leader  is  a  part  of  the  industrial 
system.  Therefore  he  must  play  the  game  accord- 
ing to  the  rules.  When  he  accepts  his  position  of 
leadership,  he  subscribes  to  those  rules,  and  woe 
to  him,  if  he  deviates  from  them,  for  the  punishment 
that  is  meted  out  to  him  is  swift  and  very  sure. 

The  individual  industrial  leader,  for  example,  is 
not  allowed  to  pay  a  rate  of  wages  higher  than  the 
going  price  in  the  community,  because  the  payment 
of  an  advance  rate  "spoils  the  labor  market."  All 
of  the  employers  of  labor  must  stand  together  on 
that  point,  or  else  there  is  no  telling  what  wages 
may  be  demanded  by  labor.  The  comments  that 
were  made  by  employers  generally  when  Henry 
Ford  announced  his  minimum  wage  of  five  dollars 
a  day,  gave  an  excellent  idea  of  the  attitude  that 
most  employers  take  toward  the  wage  problem. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP          143 

The  rules  of  the  Industrial  Regime  cannot  always 
be  broken  with  impunity  as  Henry  Ford  broke  the 
wage  rule.  There  are  many  businesses  where  the 
competition  is  so  keen,  and  the  margins  of  profit 
are  so  small  that  the  individual  employer  is  helpless 
before  them.  As  Morris  Hillquit  once  put  it:  "If 
Jesus  Christ  opened  a  coat  shop  on  Hester  Street 
(New  York)  he  would  be  forced  to  exploit  his  labor 
or  go  out  of  business."  The  pressure  of  the  system 
under  which  he  was  working  would  compel  the 
proprietor  of  the  coat  shop  to  fall  into  line,  no  matter 
what  his  personal  sentiments  might  be. 

8.     The  Men  Half  Way  Up 

The  man  higher  up  is  hedged  about  by  an  estab- 
lished order  of  business  life.  So  long  as  he  is  willing 
to  devote  his  energy  to  furthering  the  interests  of  the 
business  world,  he  is  free  to  do  his  utmost.  Let  him 
begin  to  tinker  with  the  machinery;  let  him  inject 
into  his  vocabulary  such  phrases  as  social  justice,  and 
he  is  at  once  an  object  of  suspicion.  Should  he 
carry  his  iconoclastic  tendencies  so  far  as  to  threaten 
the  smooth  running  of  the  business  machine  or  to 
reveal  its  secrets,  he  is  a  man  proscribed.  From 
that  day  forward,  let  him  beware! 

Scientific  management,  efficiency  systems  and 
business  organization  still  further  reduce  the  initia- 
tive of  the  individual,  whether  he  be  high  or  low  in  the 
business  world.  The  object  to  be  attained  by  any 
of  the  devices  for  the  improvement  of  business 


144  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

organization  is  the  standardization  of  the  work  and 
the  consequent  reduction  of  the  risk  that  is  incident 
to  the  bad  judgment  of  the  individual.  Risk  is 
reduced.  So  is  the  free  play  of  individuality. 

The  industrial  leaders,  except  for  the  favored  few, 
are  caught  hi  their  own  levers  and  cogs.  The  under 
officers  of  industry — the  foremen,  superintendents 
and  managers — are  a  part  of  a  scheme  that  holds 
them  to  the  accepted  method  of  getting  results. 
They  are  the  subjects  of  the  machine  that  they  drive. 

The  under  officers  of  a  steel  company  or  a  rail- 
road are  the  creatures  of  their  businesses.  Their 
clubs,  churches,  ideas  and  public  utterances  are 
hand  picked.  With  the  few  rare  exceptions  that 
mark  the  rule,  such  men  do  not  dare  to  express 
themselves  publicly  with  regard  to  social,  economic 
or  political  questions,  unless  they  are  acting  as  the 
mouthpieces  of  the  company  that  employs  them. 
They  do  not  even  dare  to  express  themselves  in 
regard  to  their  specialties,  unless  they  are  sure 
that  there  is  nothing  hi  their  utterances  that  will  in 
any  way  conflict  with  the  policies  of  the  company. 

The  man  half  way  up  merges  his  personality  with 
the  industry  in  which  he  is  employed.  He  sub- 
ordinates to  it  his  moral,  intellectual,  civic  and 
social  self  at  the  same  tune  that  he  subordinates  his 
business  self.  Even  among  the  least  protected  of 
the  many  groups  of  defenseless  wage-workers  in  the 
industries  of  the  United  States,  one  would  search  in 
vain  for  a  group  that  was  forced  to  subordinate 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  145 

itself  more  completely  to  the  will  of  the  Industrial 
Regime  than  is  the  man  half  way  up. 

The  man  half  way  up  is  a  part  of  the  organization, 
but  not  an  essential  part.  He  can  be  replaced  with 
comparative  ease.  The  fact  that  he  is  a  part  of  the 
business  prevents  him  from  forming  any  defensive 
organization,  like  a  trade  union.  The  fact  that  he 
can  be  replaced  without  great  difficulty  robs  him  of 
bargaining  power,  and  leaves  him  at  the  mercy  of 
the  man  higher  up  who  hires  him. 

"The  Message  to  Garcia,"  which  was  printed  into 
the  tens  of  millions  by  the  great  industrial  interests 
of  the  country,  was  built  around  the  thought — "Do 
what  you  are  told;  when  you  are  told;  and  ask  no 
questions."^  It  bespeaks  accurately  the  position  of 
the  men  half  way  up. 

Nothing  has  been  said  thus  far  about  that  oft- 
mentioned  figure  in  the  field  of  economic  mythology 
— the  independent  business  man.  A  reader  of  the 
history  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  or  of  the 
testimony  in  the  recent  New  Haven  suit,  can  form 
some  picture  of  the  position  of  the  so-called  inde- 
pendent hi  business.  When  he  collides  with  one  of 
the  larger  interests,  like  the  child  hi  the  express 
wagon  running  in  front  of  the  eight-cylinder  touring 
car,  his  only  chance  lies  in  the  possibility  of  escaping 
with  his  life. 

'The  Industrial  Regime  racks  above  as  it  crushes 
below.  Financial,  manufacturing,  railroad,  mining 
and  merchandising  interests  are  knit  close.  Politics 

10 


146          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

is  their  handmaid.  Together  they  work  out  their 
common  ends.  No  individual,  with  a  very  few 
exceptions,  counts  particularly  hi  these  common 
ends.  Each  must  go  along  or  go  under. 

The  Industrial  Regime  has  Prussianized  the  busi- 
ness world.  In  Germany  no  man  may  speak  against 
the  Emperor.  Under  the  Industrial  Regime  no 
man  may  speak  against  the  leaders  and  keep  his 
place.  Some  wretch,  as  he  is  hurled  toward  the 
abyss  of  business  oblivion,  may  scream  out  the  name 
of  Rockefeller  or  Morgan.  With  a  few  such  excep- 
tions, the  names  of  the  leaders  are  mentioned 
publicly,  except  by  disturbers  and  agitators,  with 
bated  breath,  and  gently,  as  one  might  name  a  loved 
one  or  a  saint.  Within  the  Industrial  Regime  is  a 
despotism  that  might  put  many  a  medieval  tyrant 
to  shame. 

9.     The  Methods  of  Securing  Leaders 

The  old  method  of  finding  leaders  assumed  that 
they  must  come  from  a  select,  ruling  class.  The 
new  method  assumes  that  they  are  to  be  utilized, 
wherever  found.  The  old  method  revolved  about 
the  aristocracy.  The  new  method  revolves  about 
the  great  mass  of  men.  Under  the  old  scheme, 
leaders  were  to  be  bred ;  under  the  new  scheme,  they 
are  to  be  found.  The  old  idea  appears  under  the 
name  Eugenics;  the  new  idea  under  the  name 
Education. 

The  two  methods  of  securing  leaders  may  be 
contrasted : 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  147 

THE  OLD  THE  NEW 

1.  Breeding  leaders.  1.  Finding  leaders. 

2.  The  elect.  2.  The  ranks. 

3.  Aristocracy.  3.  Democracy. 

4.  Eugenics.  4.  Education. 

The  experience  of  the  human  race  during  the  past 
thousand  years  has  shown  conclusively  that  when 
the  elect  are  depended  upon  for  leaders,  the  most 
fit  among  the  elect  are  frequently  less  fit  than  the 
most  fit  among  the  masses.  The  race  stock  in  a 
family  seems  to  decay.  If  that  family  be  a  royal 
family,  the  subjects  pay  a  frightful  price  for  their 
method  of  selecting  leaders.  The  world  has  yet 
to  learn  whether  the  democratic  method  of  select- 
ing leaders  will  prove  more  effective  in  the  long  run 
than  the  aristocratic  method.  For  the  time  being, 
there  are  millions  that  believe  devoutly  in  the 
democratic  way. 

There  is  one  man  in  the  community  who  should 
do  each  piece  of  work  that  is  to  be  done — that  man  is 
the  one  best  fitted  by  heredity  and  by  training  to 
do  the  work.  The  right  leader  is,  therefore,  the  man 
best  born  and  best  trained  for  leadership. 

Heredity  gives  the  quality  of  the  steel.  The 
training  puts  on  the  edge.  Poor  steel  will  not  take 
an  edge.  But  the  best  of  steel  will  not  cut  unless  it 
has  been  sharpened.  How  shall  we  determine 
whether  a  given  piece  of  steel  will  cut?  Sharpen 
it  and  see! 

The  old  method  rested  its  case  with  the  education 


148  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

of  the  elect.  Why  sharpen  the  rest  of  the  metal  in 
the  community  when  everyone  knew  that  it  was 
either  poor  steel  or  lead?  There  was  no  reason  for 
extending  opportunity  beyond  the  elect. 

The  new  plan  makes  it  necessary  to  begin  the 
sharpening  of  every  piece  of  metal  in  the  community 
in  order  to  determine  which  is  the  genuine  tool 
steel.  There  is  no  means  of  deciding  hi  advance 
which  man  is  best  able  to  assuming  the  position  of 
community  leader.  The  best  leaders  can  be  picked 
only  through  a  process  of  continuous  experimenta- 
tion. That  process  is  called  apprenticeship  when  it 
is  applied  to  industry  and  education  when  it  is 
applied  to  the  community. 

10.     The  Training  of  Industry 

True  apprenticeship  disappeared  with  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  craft  system  of  industry. 
Apprenticeship  was  possible  while  men  practiced 
trades.  Today  there  are  practically  none  of  the 
old  hand  trades  left.  Industry  no  longer  educates. 
It  specializes  men. 

Specialization  does  not  make  leaders.  Rather  it 
produces  a  type  that  has  been  trained  to  take  orders 
and  obey  accurately  and  unquestioningly.  The 
result  of  specialization  is  not  leaders  but  minders. 

Recently  one  of  the  largest  manufacturers  in  his 
city  rose  in  public  to  make  an  indignant  comment 
on  the  inability  of  the  workers  in  his  mills  to  assume 
any  responsibility.  "I  have  five  thousand  people," 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  149 

he  exclaimed,  "and  among  them  all  I  cannot  find 
a  man  with  brains  enough  to  act  as  labor  foreman." 
This  manufacturer  had  the  reputation  of  requiring 
the  most  implicit  obedience  from  the  men  in  his 
employ.  For  them  his  word  was  the  final  law. 
For  years  he  had  rigorously  eliminated  every  man 
who  disobeyed  orders,  or  refused  to  accept  the 
dictation  of  his  superior.  When  he  turned  to  this 
group  for  men  with  initiative,  he  found,  as  the  pro- 
duct of  his  administration,  a  group  of  people  who 
knew  how  to  do  only  what  they  were  told. 

All  manufacturers  are  not  so  exacting  as  this 
man;  but  all  manufacturers  are  engaged  in  the 
organization  of  industry  on  a  specialized  basis  that 
produces  anything  except  leadership.  The  hierarchy 
of  industry  is  being  so  developed  that  it  is  more  and 
more  difficult  for  a  man  to  work  his  way  up  from  the 
ranks.  The  room  at  the  top  grows  smaller  and 
smaller  at  the  same  time  that  the  specialization  of 
occupations  takes  away  from  the  average  worker 
any  opportunity  to  learn  through  doing. 

11.     Leadership  Through  Education 

The  answer  of  the  industrial  world  to  the  charge 
that  industrialism  is  not  producing  leadership  is 
quick  and  final — "The  problem  of  leadership  is 
the  problem  of  the  schools."  Some  of  the  larger 
industries  are  maintaining  schools  in  connection 
with  their  own  businesses,  but  for  the  most  part,  the 
education  of  the  prospective  worker  in  industry  will 
be  given  in  the  public  educational  system. 


150  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

Turn  to  the  schools,  and  the  same  pyramiding 
that  was  commented  on  in  connection  with  the 
organization  of  industry  is  met  with  in  an  extreme 
form.  On  the  one  hand,  there  are  the  few  directors, 
or  men  at  the  top  of  the  educational  hierarchy,  and 
the  many  teachers  in  the  ranks.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  the  many  children  in  the  lower  schools  and 
the  few  hi  the  higher  schools.5  Again  there  are  the 
few  teachers  above  and  the  many  children  subject 
to  their  authority.  The  pyramid  is  still  there,  with 
its  tiny  apex  and  broad  base. 

The  teacher  who  becomes  a  part  of  the  school 
system  learns  to  do  what  she  is  told.  If  she  teaches 
in  a  state  like  New  York  she  is  told  by  the  Board  of 
Regents,  having  charge  of  the  educational  work  of 
the  entire  state.  If  she  is  a  teacher  in  the  schools  of 
a  large  city,  let  us  say  Chicago,  she  is  told  by  the 
city  superintendent  of  schools. 

The  teacher  is  provided  with  a  course  of  study,  and 
she  is  notified  that  a  certain  method  is  the  approved 
method  for  the  teaching  of  a  given  subject.  Then, 
under  the  eye  of  a  supervising  principal  (foreman) 
and  of  a  district  superintendent  (manager)  she  does 
her  work.  With  the  course  of  study  prescribed  and 
the  method  prescribed,  the  teacher  has  a  very  little 
leeway.  The  elbow  room  that  she  might  enjoy  is 


'The  report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
the  year  ending  June  30,  1914,  shows  19,064,787  pupils  in  elemen- 
tary schools;  1,366,822  pupils  in  high  and  preparatory  schools,  and 
361,270  pupils  in  universities  and  colleges,  professional  schools  and 
normal  schools. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  151 

lessened  because  of  a  training  in  a  formalized  normal 
school  that  was  designed  to  prepare  the  teacher  for 
just  this  kind  of  a  position.  There  are  exceptional 
school  systems  and  exceptional  teachers,  but  the 
great  body  of  American  school  teachers  have  learned 
to  do  what  they  are  told. 

The  machinery  of  the  public  schools  is  formalized. 
The  children  are  no  less  so.  They  climb  from  grade 
to  grade  along  a  carefully  built  ladder,  that  is  con- 
structed on  the  assumption  that  all  of  the  children 
who  use  it  are  the  same  kind  of  children.  If  they 
are  not  of  the  same  kind,  there  is  something  the 
matter  with  the  children.  Grade  above  grade  they 
go,  until  they  reach  the  high  school,  where  the  tensity 
of  the  strain  is  lessened,  by  a  differentiation  of 
courses. 

During  the  eight  years  of  work  in  the  elementary 
school  the  children  have  been  subject  to  one  of  the 
most  sacred  of  all  of  the  educational  fetishes — the 
fetish  of  "Discipline."  The  petty  virtues  such  as 
punctuality,  neatness,  and  obedience  are  elevated  to 
a  post  of  supreme  importance  in  the  school  room. 
For  eight  years  the  child  is  taught  to  do  what  he  is 
told. 

The  factory  system  finds  its  prototype  hi  the 
school  system.  The  man  higher  up  gives  the  order. 
The  teacher  in  the  ranks  obeys.  The  teacher  passes 
the  command  on  to  the  pupils,  who  accept  her 
authority  and  do  as  they  are  told. 

The  word  that  most  nearly  characterizes  the  public 


152  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

school  system  of  the  United  States  is  " authority." 
Children  and  teachers  alike  are  taught  to  obey, 
without  question,  the  directions  of  those  above 
them.  The  schools,  more  perhaps  than  any  other 
institution,  are  inculcating  in  the  American  people 
an  unintelligent  respect  for  those  higher  up  in 
the  ranks  of  administrative  power. 

The  word  "  Prussianize "  has  come  to  mean 
"  control  exercised  in  an  absolute  or  despotic  man- 
ner." There  is  no  institution  in  the  United  States 
that  is  more  completely  Prussianized  than  the 
public  schools.  The  power  of  the  superintendent 
over  the  teacher  is  only  exceeded  by  the  power  of 
the  teacher  over  the  child.  In  both  cases  the  power 
may  be  exercised  autocratically,  without  any  prac- 
ticable means  of  redress. 

What  have  the  children  as  a  result  of  this  school 
training?  Is  it  true,  as  a  prominent  educator 
recently  affirmed,  that  the  great  mass  of  children 
in  the  public  schools — those  who  never  finish  the 
eighth  grade — learn  indifferently  reading,  writing, 
and  simple  operations  with  whole  numbers?  The 
employers  who  offer  them  jobs  aver  that  it  is. 

The  elementary  schools  of  the  United  States  are 
not  organized  to  make  leaders.  They  are  made  to 
create  followers.  The  children  who  leave  them 
have  been  taught  to  do  what  they  are  told.  They 
have  learned  the  lessons  that  go  to  the  making  of 
successful  and  faithful  servants. 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  ordinary  child  in  rela- 


tion  to  the  great  school-machine.  The  heroes  of  old 
were  fed  on  the  marrow  of  lions  and  bears;  look  at 
the  average  cut-and-dried  course  of  study.  They 
kindled  the  fire  of  their  spirits  at  the  flash  of  Jove's 
lightning.  Behold  the  average  machine-made  school 
teacher!  When  did  greatness  of  spirit  come  out  of 
the  clicking  of  cogs?  when  were  leaders  made  from 
the  treadmill? 

And  the  inspiration  of  the  leader — the  kindling  of 
soul  at  the  fire  of  soul — can  that  come  from  a  school 
teacher  who  dare  not  lead  in  his  own  town?  How 
can  the  teacher  inspire  to  leadership  unless  he  is 
himself  a  leader? 

You  turn,  as  well  you  may,  for  hope  to  the  high 
schools.  They  have  fulfilled  at  least  a  measure  of 
their  duty.  Their  classes  have  been  small;  their 
teachers  well  paid  and  fairly  well  chosen;  their 
equipment  has  been  good,  and  their  courses  suffi- 
ciently specialized  to  give  some  choice  to  the  boys 
and  girls  entering  them.  One  fact  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of,  however.  Only  a  small  fraction  of  the  chil- 
dren who  enter  the  first  grade  of  the  schools  ever 
get  to  high  school.  Among  the  families  of  the  well- 
to-do  the  percentage  is  reasonably  high.  Among 
those  who  have  less  means,  the  percentage  falls 
in  some  sections  to  zero. 

And  the  colleges? 

Perhaps,  hi  the  colleges,  better  than  anywhere 
else,  the  vice  of  the  present  educational  system 
appears.  The  colleges  are  dealing  with  sap-wood. 


154  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

With  the  exception  of  the  professional  schools,  where 
probably  it  is  less  true,  the  boys  who  go  to  American 
colleges  are  for  the  most  part  "sent." 

A  system  of  education  that  aimed  to  produce 
leaders  would  begin  with  a  hundred  children  in  the 
first  year  of  their  school  lives,  and  train  them  care- 
fully, searching  diligently  for  the  strong  points 
and  talents  that  are  latent  everywhere.  As  these 
appeared,  the  school  should  foster  them  tenderly,  as 
we  would  guard  the  most  precious  treasures  in  the 
community — the  spirit  of  the  future.  Year  by  year, 
the  school  would  test  and  try  these  talents  on  this 
thing  and  on  that,  so  that  each  might  have  his 
congenial  work.  At  last,  whether  in  high  school, 
college  or  professional  school,  when  the  educational 
world  had  finished  its  work,  the  youth  would  step 
into  the  work  to  which  his  abilities  and  the  training 
of  the  school  had  prepared  him. 

How  different  the  plan  that  we  follow.  The  child 
enters  the  predetermined  course  of  study;  passes 
through  the  grades,  as  he  would  pass  from  one  floor 
of  an  office  building  to  the  next ;  then,  before  he  has 
completed  the  eighth  year,  in  three  cases  out  of 
four,  he  drops  out.  No,  that  is  not  a  fair  statement 
of  the  case.  If  his  parents  have  means,  he  probably 
goes  on.  If  his  parents  are  poor,  he  probably  starts 
to  work. 

There  seem  to  be  two  main  causes  for  children 
leaving  school.  One  is  the  lack  of  interest  that  the 
children  have  in  the  school.  The  other  is  the  short- 
age of  family  income. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  155 

High  school  is  passed  in  the  same  manner.  Then 
the  time  is  ripe  for  college.  Who  shall  go  to  college? 
Who  does  go  to  college?  The  other  day  I  asked  a 
senior  in  one  of  the  smaller  Eastern  colleges  whether 
there  were  any  poor  boys  hi  his  college.  After  a 
moment's  thought  he  replied,  "  There  are  boys  who 
come  from  the  families  of  the  respectable  poor- 
ministers,  teachers,  widowed  mothers  and  the  like; 
but  there  is  not  one  boy  in  the  college  whose  father 
is  a  wage-earner."  That  would  be  less  true  of  the 
professional  schools;  less  true  of  the  West  than  of 
the  East;  less  true  in  some  of  the  larger,  better- 
known  institutions.  Nevertheless,  the  fact  remains 
that  of  the  two  or  three  per  cent  of  the  original  school 
population  who  do  get  to  college,  the  great  majority 
are  undoubtedly  the  children  of  the  well-to-do. 

From  these  well-to-do  families  the  boys  are 
"sent"  to  college  and  "kept"  there  while  they  get 
what  training  they  can. 

Are  the  children  of  the  well-to-do  sent  to  college 
more  generally  than  the  children  of  the  masses 
because  they  are  any  brighter  than  their  school 
fellows?  Not  for  a  moment!  They  are  sent  to 
college  because  they  are  in  that  very  small  class  in  the 
community  with  a  family  income  of  at  least  $1,000  a 
year  in  the  country  and  $1,800  a  year  in  the  city. 

12.     The  Denial  of  Opportunity 

The  educational  system  is  training  for  leadership 
to  this  extent — it  educates  those  who  can  get  from 


156  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

their  homes  sufficient  food,  clothing,  stimulus  and 
inspiration  to  stay  in  school.  The  system  is  doing 
its  best  to  pick  leaders  from  among  those  who  are  in 
the  schools.  But  in  the  higher  years  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  children  ever  enter.  They  are  kept 
out  by  a  lack  of  family  income. 

This  is  true  despite  the  fact,  so  frequently 
reiterated,  that  the  children  of  all  classes  of  the 
population  are  probably  about  equal  in  capacity. 
After  his  exhaustive  examination  of  the  problem  of 
ability  among  men,  Lester  F.  Ward,  in  his  "Applied 
Sociology,"  states  his  conclusion  that  capacity  is 
latent  everywhere.  It  is  opportunity  that  is  rare, 
not  ability.  "The  fact  that  so  many  do  struggle  up 
out  of  obscurity  does  not  so  much  show  that  they 
possess  superiority  as  that  they  happen  to  be  less 
bound  down  than  others  by  the  conventional  bonds 
of  society."6  At  another  place  Ward  thus  sum- 
marizes his  findings:  "This  again  indicates  the  true 
resources  (the  unworked  mines)  that  society  pos- 
sesses. Only  ten  per  cent  of  these  resources  have 
been  developed.  Another  ten  per  cent  are  some- 
what developed.  There  remain  eighty  per  cent  as 
yet  almost  undeveloped."7  There  is  an  immense 
store  of  unused  power  in  the  world  that  remains 
unused  because  the  social  system  under  which  men 
live  presses  out  the  lives  of  those  underneath. 


•"Applied  Sociology,"  Lester  F.  Ward.     Boston:   Ginn  &  Co., 
1906,  p.  264. 
7  Ibid.,  p.  229. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  157 

The  children  who  are  born  into  the  United  States 
in  the  twentieth  century  are  running  the  race  of  life. 
One  is  clad  in  fine,  well-suited  garments;  another  is 
covered  with  rags.  One  is  equipped  with  running 
shoes  of  the  most  approved  pattern;  another  is 
barefoot,  and  there  are  thorns  and  sharp  rocks  in 
the  path.  One  starts  on  solid  ground ;  another  must 
crawl  out  of  the  mire  before  he  can  begin  to  run. 
One  is  sleek  and  well  trained;  another  is  haggard 
with  want.  One  is  free  for  the  race;  another  is 
loaded  down  with  the  burden  of  a  dependent  family; 
one  starts  from  scratch;  the  other  has  a  start  of 
twenty  yards  in  a  hundred-yard  race.  At  such  a 
race  in  the  stadium  men  would  turn  their  backs  and 
scoff.  Its  blatant  unfairness  would  arouse  their 
deepest  scorn.  Yet  that  is  the  basis  on  which  the 
children  of  the  well-to-do  and  the  children  of  the 
poor  are  asked  to  run  the  race  of  life. 

We  are  running  the  race  of  life,  some  free;  others 
loaded  down  with  the  intolerable  burdens  that  the 
present  order  of  society  imposes  on  the  poor. 

Here  are  two  boys,  born  on  the  same  day,  of  equal 
ability  in  every  particular.  One  boy  is  the  son  of  a 
cotton  spinner;  the  other  is  the  son  of  a  judge.  At 
fourteen,  the  son  of  the  cotton  spinner  is  sent  to  the 
mills  to  help  support  the  family.  There  he  works 
for  ten  years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  is  earn- 
ing ten  dollars  a  week.  The  son  of  the  judge  is  sent 
to  high  school  at  fourteen;  to  college  at  eighteen, 
and  to  the  law  school  at  twenty-one.  At  twenty- 


158          INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

four  he  enters  his  profession,  backed  by  the  reputa- 
tion, position  and  wide  acquaintanceship  of  his 
father,  and  equipped  with  the  best  that  the  world 
has  to  offer  in  academic  training.  Visit  those  boys 
hi  their  homes  at  thirty-five.  One  will  be  a  cotton- 
spinner.  The  other  will  be  a  successful  lawyer. 
They  were  equal  at  the  start.  Their  opportunity 
has  made  them  what  they  &re. 

Such  a  situation  calls  from  Ward  his  famous  state- 
ment: "There  can  be  no  equality  and  no  justice,  not 
to  speak  of  equity,  so  long  as  society  is  composed  of 
members,  equally  endowed  by  nature,  a  few  of  whom 
only  possess  the  social  heritage  of  truth  and  ideas 
resulting  from  the  laborious  investigations  and  pro- 
found meditations  of  all  past  ages,  while  the  great 
mass  are  shut  out  from  all  the  light  that  human 
achievement  has  shed  upon  the  world."8 

Society,  even  the  supposedly  democratic  society 
hi  the  United  States,  has  barely  begun  its  search  for 
leadership.  The  latent  capacities  of  the  people  exist 
on  every  hand.  There  is  a  need  for  leaders,  and 
here  is  the  material  from  which  leadership  is  made, 
awaiting  only  the  opportunity  for  its  development. 

Through  freedom  of  opportunity  alone  can  the 
best  men  be  secured  for  leadership.  At  this  critical 
period — this  turning  point  in  the  life  history  of  the 
nation — when  wise  leadership  is  so  imperatively 
demanded,  there  seems  to  be  this  one  plain  duty 

8  "Applied  Sociology,"  Lester  F.  Ward.  Boston:  Ginn  &  Co., 
1906,  p.  281. 


INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP  159 

before  the  American  people.  Either  they  must  assert 
the  principles  of  democracy,  as  they  were  asserted 
by  their  forefathers,  and  live  up  to  them,  or  else 
they  must  resort  to  some  other  method  for  the  selec- 
tion of  their  leaders.  If  some  aristocratic  method  of 
leadership  selection  is  to  be  relied  upon,  let  it  be 
plainly  set  forth  that  all  of  the  people  may  know 
the  strength  of  the  thing  upon  which  they  repose 
the  future  welfare  of  the  nation.  If  the  democratic 
principle  is  still  to  be  followed,  let  that  fact  be 
stated  hi  no  uncertain  terms. 

Meanwhile  the  industries  of  the  community  are 
turning  hither  and  thither,  asking  for  those  that  will 
prove  wise  leaders.  Industry  itself  can  do  its  part; 
affording  what  training  it  may  through  apprentice- 
ship; allowing  room  for  initiative;  choosing  its 
leaders  because  of  merit  and  not  through  favor. 
The  part  that  industry  can  play  is  small,  however, 
compared  with  the  part  that  must  be  taken  by  the 
schools. 

The  schools  are  the  one  public  institution  that  may 
be  relied  upon  to  afford  the  opportunity  that  will  yield 
the  development  of  leadership  qualities.  Indeed, 
the  public  school  is  the  only  people's  institution  that 
there  is.  If  the  affairs  of  the  state  are  to  be  admin- 
istered democratically,  if  the  name  "Public  Opinion" 
is  to  be  more  than  a  name,  the  public  school  must 
make  the  boys  and  girls  who  come  to  it  think. 

The  logical  place  for  the  provision  of  opportunity 
is  the  schools.  If  all  are  to  have  an  equal  right  to 


160  INDUSTRIAL  LEADERSHIP 

the  development  of  talents,   that  right   must  be 
based  on  the  work  that  is  given  in  the  schools. 

The  schools  must  have  a  vocational  plan  of  the 
city,  the  state  and  the  nation.  They  must  know 
where  the  demand  for  men  and  women  is  most 
strongly  felt,  and  then  they  must  train  and  prepare 
their  pupils  to  participate  in  those  civic,  social  and 
industrial  activities,  not  as  efficient  machines,  but 
as  reasoning  human  beings. 


CHAPTER  IV 
POVERTY 

1.    Progress  and  Poverty 

THE  Industrial  Regime  has  centered  the  attention 
of  men  on  the  material  values  in  life.  Itself 
the  embodiment  of  materialism  and  devoted  to  the 
production  of  material  goods,  the  Industrial  Regime 
serves  as  a  means  of  expression  for  the  material 
interests.  Still,  wages  remain  low,  and  the  leader 
of  industry,  a  unit  in  a  vast  machine,  finds  himself 
asking  what  it  all  means  to  him  and  to  his  children. 

There  remains  one  other  important  aspect  of  the 
whole  problem.  While  the  laborer  has  contested 
the  wage  rate,  and  while  the  schools  were  searching 
for  leadership  through  the  granting  of  opportunity 
to  all  on  equal  terms,  the  people  of  the  western  world 
were  forming  a  habit  with  two  names — "Poverty" 
and  "Riches." 

There  are  a  thousand  reasons  that  rise  up  to  con- 
demn the  habit,  or,  perhaps,  better  still,  the  vice 
of  "Poverty"  or  "Riches."  Codes  of  ethics, 
religions,  moral  sayings,  logic,  experience,  under- 
standing, join  hi  a  chorus  of  protest,  yet  the  habit 
gets  a  surer  and  surer  hold  on  its  victims.  The 
machine  has  increased  wealth  in  unheard-of  pro- 
;  a  (i6i) 


162  POVERTY 

portions.  Poverty  has  persisted  while  riches  have 
multiplied.  Despite  the  machine,  or,  perhaps, 
better  still,  because  of  the  machine,  "Poverty" 
and  "Riches"  have  grown  side  by  side  hi  western 
civilization. 

The  contrast  between  "progress  and  poverty" 
was  set  forth  vividly  by  Henry  George.  Like  many 
another  reformer,  he  felt  the  problem  deeply,  but, 
unlike  many  another  one,  he  was  able  to  describe  it 
in  unforgettable  terms.  He  writes,  in  his  "Intro- 
duction:" "The  enormous  increase  hi  productive 
power  which  has  marked  the  present  century  and  is 
still  going  on  with  accelerating  ratio,  has  no  tendency 
to  extirpate  poverty  or  to  lighten  the  burdens  of 
those  compelled  to  toil.  .  .  .  The  march  of  inven- 
tion has  clothed  mankind  with  powers  of  which  a 
century  ago  the  boldest  imagination  could  not  have 
dreamed.  But  in  factories  where  labor-saving 
machinery  has  reached  its  most  wonderful  develop- 
ment, little  children  are  at  work;  wherever  the  new 
forces  are  anything  like  fully  utilized,  large  classes 
are  maintained  by  charity  or  live  on  the  verge  of 
recourse  to  it;  amid  the  greatest  accumulations  of 
wealth,  men  die  of  starvation,  and  puny  infants 
suckle  dry  breasts." 

Poverty  is  appalling,  yet  its  true  significance  can 
be  appreciated  only  when  it  is  contrasted  with  pros- 
perity. The  association  of  poverty  and  progress  is 
not  only  what  Henry  George  called  it,  "the  great 
enigma  of  our  tunes,"  but  unless  the  enigma  can  be 


POVERTY  163 

solved,  it  will  prove  the  undoing  of  any  society  that 
tolerates  its  presence. 

No  thinking  being  can  escape  the  issue.  Here,  in 
a  richly  endowed,  wealthy  land,  the  avenues  of 
progress  and  the  back  alleys  of  poverty  lie  side  by 
side.  The  greater  the  city,  the  more  splendid  its 
public  buildings  and  private  dwellings,  the  more 
frightful  does  this  contrast  appear.  With  ease, 
comfort  and  luxury  in  ample  abundance,  poverty 
lurks  and  snarls. 

The  effects  of  poverty  are  no  less  frightful  than  its 
presence.  It  blights  communities,  neighborhoods, 
families,  children  and  unborn  babies.  It  curses 
wherever  it  touches. 

The  man  who  has  looked  the  issue  in  the  face; 
who  has  seen  this  affluence  and  that  wretchedness; 
who  has  taken  pains  to  inquire;  who  understands 
something  of  the  reason  for  povery  and  for  riches, 
finds  the  juxtaposition  of  the  two  strange,  absurd, 
grotesque,  repulsive,  abhorrent,  intolerable.  These 
two  things,  placed  side  by  side,  are  an  affront  to  his 
sense  of  justice  as  they  are  a  challenge  to  his 
manhood. 

2.     What  is  Poverty? 

There  are  many  different  standards  that  may  be 
accepted  as  the  criterion  for  deciding  what  is  poverty. 
First,  there  is  starvation. 

After  a  human  being  has  starved  to  death,  it  is 
perfectly  possible  for  the  doctors  to  perform  an 


164  POVERTY 

autopsy,  and  decide  that  poverty  was  the  cause  of 
death.  It  is  possible  for  the  medical  profession  to 
go  even  farther,  and  to  pick  a  child  out  of  the 
schoolroom  with  the  diagnosis,  " anemic;  poorly 
nourished." 

Starvation  is  not  a  reasonable  measure  of  poverty 
because  no  society  can  afford  starvation.  As  a 
social  condition  in  a  rich  community,  it  is  unspeak- 
ably immoral.  Even  if  it  is  being  relied  upon  as  a 
means  of  keeping  down  the  surplus  of  population,  it 
is  brutal  and  wasteful. 

Subsistence,  as  a  measure  of  poverty,  is  open  to  a 
similar  objection  from  another  point  of  view.  An 
unvaried  diet,  ragged  clothing  and  a  narrow  cell  of 
a  house  are  sufficient  to  keep  some  bodies  and  souls 
together,  but  they  are  not  sufficient  to  keep  people 
personally  happy  and  socially  presentable.  The 
people  living  on  such  a  standard  are  living  below  the 
standard  of  life  accepted  by  the  community.  There 
are  many  people  who  believe  that  the  black  bread 
and  thin  soup  of  the  French  peasantry  in  the 
eighteenth  century  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  keep 
alive  the  working  population  of  the  United  States. 
Granted  that  this  was  true,  and  granted  that  indus- 
trial efficiency  was  not  a  desirable  thing  to  attain,  it 
would  still  be  true  that  where  one  group  of  people 
is  kept  on  the  margin  of  subsistence,  while  another 
group  enjoys  the  good  things  of  life,  the  first  group 
becomes  a  subject  class,  and  democracy  is  destroyed. 

No  industrial  group  and  no  social  group  can  hope 


TWO    WAYS    OF    GETTING    FED 

Above,  in  the  Bread  Line,  are  men  who  are  evidently  not  hoboes. 
I>ack  of  employment  has  forced  them  to  stand  here  for  hours  until, 
after  midnight,  they  are  handed  a  cup  of  soup  and  chunk  of  bread 
by  charity.  Below,  is  a  flashlight  of  a  debutante  dinner  given  by 
one  of  the  wealthiest  women  in  New  York.  The  center  of  the  table 
is  transformed  into  a  Japanese  garden  ;  perfect  miniature  islands 
with  tiny  trees  and  plants  are  surrounded  by  the  water  of  a  lake 
in  which  fish  are  swimming.  The  guests,  in  fancy  costumes,  will 
toy  with  the  expensive  food  and  wines.  (Photos  by  Brown  Bros.) 


POVERTY  165 

to  persist  that  fails  to  make  the  provision  for  the 
physical  health  and  social  decency  of  the  people 
upon  whom  its  organization  depends  for  effort  and 
energy. 

According  to  this  definition  of  poverty  as  "a 
standard  of  life  below  that  which  will  provide  for 
physical  efficiency  and  social  decency,"  poverty 
is  not  pauperism.  The  pauper  depends  upon  the 
community  for  support.  Tens  of  thousands  of 
people  who  live  in  poverty,  have  never  accepted  a 
penny  hi  charity.  Thus,  if  the  family  income  is 
insufficient  under  reasonably  careful  management  to 
buy  the  outside  worker  sufficient  warm  clothing  to 
withstand  the  rigors  of  a  northern  winter,  the  family 
is  in  poverty.  A  serious  illness  of  the  breadwinner 
may  so  reduce  the  family  income  that  it  is  forced  to 
live  at  the  margin  of  subsistence.  Such  a  family  is 
in  poverty.  Where  clothes  are  so  patched  and 
darned  that  the  other  children  in  the  school  are 
making  fun;  or  where  the  father  and  mother  do  not 
go  to  church  or  to  public  meetings  because  their 
clothes  are  shabby,  the  family  is  in  poverty.  This 
poverty  exists  whether  outside  help  is  accepted  or 
not.  Every  family  that  is  living  on  an  income  that 
will  not  provide  for  physical  health  and  social 
decency  is  in  poverty. 

3.     The  Trail  of  Poverty 

Apologists  are  not  lacking  who  find  in  poverty  a 
great  incentive,  a  training  ground  for  character,  a 


166  POVERTY 

well-spring  for  stimulus,  for  integrity  and  fine 
living.  One  man,  who  had  been  extremely  poor  hi 
his  boyhood,  recently  wrote  an  essay  entitled, 
"Why  I  Believe  hi  Poverty."  But  when  his  own 
son  graduated  from  an  expensive  preparatory  school, 
instead  of  sending  him  to  the  street,  to  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  poverty,  he  picked  out  one  of  the  most 
exclusive  of  the  smaller  colleges,  and  entered  him 
there. 

A  man  who  had  once  had  a  very  severe  case  of 
typhoid  fever — hanging  for  four  weeks  between  life 
and  death — boasted  that  since  he  recovered  from  the 
fever,  more  than  twenty  years  back,  he  had  never 
experienced  a  day  of  illness.  There  was  a  suggestion, 
in  his  manner  of  relating  his  experience,  that  his 
young  hearers  should  indulge  in  a  thorough-going 
case  of  typhoid  if  they  wished  to  be  well.  There 
was  at  least  one  serious  objection  to  taking  the 
advice — suppose  the  balance  turned  the  wrong  way 
and  you  failed  to  pull  through! 

Men  and  women  a-plenty  have  risen  from  poverty, 
but  for  each  such  case  there  are  a  dozen  or  a  score 
where  the  balance  has  turned  the  wrong  way.  Of 
those  who  do  recover  from  the  effects  of  poverty, 
many  bear  the  physical  and  spiritual  scars  of  the 
struggle  to  their  graves. 

If  poverty  were  such  a  blessing  as  some  folks 
would  have  us  believe,  is  it  not  strange  that  the  whole 
community  should  dread  it  and  hate  as  it  dreads 
and  hates  no  other  contagious  disease?  And,  stranger 


POVERTY  167 

still,  that  for  each  thousand  that  have  learned  of 
poverty  at  first  hand  by  living  in  it  and  escaping 
from  it,  not  one  sends  his  children  back  into  the 
slough  for  the  building  of  their  bodies  and  the 
saving  of  their  souls? 

The  fact  is  that  poverty  is  horrible.  Those  who 
are  most  familiar  with  poverty — who  have  observed 
it  and  analyzed  it  critically,  find  it  unrelieved  by 
any  mitigating  circumstance. 

After  years  spent  in  the  work  of  one  of  the  largest 
New  York  charity  societies,  Robert  Bruere  sets 
down  his  general  impressions  of  poverty  in  these 
terms:  "Day  after  day,  month  after  month,  I  saw 
strong  men  compelled  by  the  starvation  of  their 
wives  and  children  to  submit  to  the  humiliation  of 
accepting  alms;  of  women  whose  infants  were  under- 
sized because  they  had  gone  hungry  for  months 
before  their  babies  were  born;  children  barefooted 
and  ragged  in  the  midst  of  winter,  for  whom  their 
teachers  asked  clothing  so  that  they  might  attend 
school;  the  honorable  and  able-bodied  poor  forced, 
by  conditions  over  which  they  exercised  no  control, 
to  mingle  with  dissipated  and  decrepit  paupers,  with 
the  scrofulous,  and  those  most  tragic  creatures — 
men  and  women — beaten  hi  the  fight  for  a  living."1 
This  picture,  seen  by  Mr.  Bruere  in  one  large  city, 
is  repeated  and  reiterated  whenever  those  who  are 
most  familiar  with  poverty  detail  their  experiences. 

1"The  Good  Samaritan,  Incorporated,"  Robert  W.  Bruere. 
Harpers,  May,  1910,  p.  833. 


168  POVERTY 

An  article  on  the  New  York  subway  workers 
by  William  H.  Matthews,2  president  of  the  City 
Board  of  Child  Welfare,  gives  an  enlightening  de- 
scription of  poverty  in  the  families  of  men  who  are 
doing  some  of  the  most  necessary  work  in  the  City 
of  New  York. 

Mr.  Matthews  had  been  interested  hi  relieving 
unemployment.  When  he  offered  a  man  a  subway 
job,  he  was  met  with  the  retort,  "Yes,  I'll  take  a 
job  in  the  subway  if  there  ain't  anything  else  to 
offer,  but  how  in  hell  is  a  man  going  to  support  his 
family  on  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day?  Tell  me  that?  " 

Mr.  Matthews,  in  answering  the  question,  takes 
the  reader  to  visit  a  number  of  families  of  the  un- 
skilled workers  who  received  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
day.  The  first  family  lived  "in  the  top  floor  back" 
of  a  dilapidated  looking  rear  tenement.  Mr. 
Matthews  climbed  the  stairs  at  about  half-past 
eight,  and  knocked  at  the  door,  which  was  opened 
by  a  ten-year-old  boy. 

"His  look  was  a  bit  frightened,  as  was  also  that 
of  his  six-year-old  brother  who  was  sitting  on  a 
backless  chair  in  a  corner  of  the  kitchen.  Kitchen, 
did  I  say?  Yes,  it  was  the  kitchen,  living  room  and 
dining  room  combined,  plus  a  single  bed  which 
crowded  the  little  stove  and  dining  table  for  room. 
Off  this  room  was  another,  still  smaller,  with  a  little 
window  opening  on  an  air-shaft.  Here  the  bed  was 
three-quarter  size.  One  might  sit  on  the  edge  of 

8  Survey,  October  2,  1915. 


POVERTY  169 

it  and  take  off  his  shoes,  provided  no  one  wanted 
to  pass  at  the  same  time. 

"  'Where  is  your  mother,  lad?'  was  my  first 
question. 

"  'Gone  to  work/ 

"'How  long  ago?' 

"  '  She  goes  soon  after  six  to  clean  a  building.' 

"  'Where  is  your  father?' 

"  'He  goes  up  to  the  subway  about  seven.' 

"  'And  what  are  you  and  your  brother  doing?' 

"  'Eating  breakfast.' 

"Yes,  there  it  was — a  pot  of  murky  looking  coffee 
and  part  of  a  loaf  of  bread. 

"Knowing  that  there  was  a  third  child  in  the 
family,  a  boy  of  two,  I  inquired  his  whereabouts. 

"  'My  mother  takes  him  to  the  nursery  when  she 
goes  to  work.' 

"They  were  fine  little  chaps,  these  two  boys  of 
ten  and  six  whom  I  had  found  getting  their  own 
breakfast  nearly  two  hours  after  their  mother  had 
gone  to  work,  lugging  with  her  the  other  sleepy 
youngster.  .  .  .  Here  in  these  two  rooms  was 
one  answer  to  our  question  as  to  how  the  women  and 
children  exist  when  the  man's  occupation  is  one 
that  pays  less  than  a  subsistence  wage. 

"Two  blocks  down  the  street  I  made  my  next  call. 
Here  the  family  consisted  of  man,  wife  and  four 
children.  But  the  man  was  getting  $1.60  per  day, 
which  made  it  a  bit  better.  The  rooms  were  three 
of  the  same  character  as  those  I  had  just  left.  The 


170  POVERTY 

week  before  the  mother  had  given  up  some  outside 
work  she  was  doing,  an  attack  of  rheumatism  and 
quinsy  making  it  impossible  for  her  to  continue. 
This  morning  she  had  gone  to  the  diet  kitchen  'to 
get  milk  and  could  scarcely  get  home,  she  was  so 
weak/  Two  of  the  children  were  'not  feeling  well,' 
but  they  were  going  to  be  sent  to  the  country  for 
two  weeks,  which  she  thought  would  do  them  good. 
She  would  take  them  to  the  clinic  that  afternoon. 
Her  husband  was  working  every  day  now,  but  had 
been  laid  off  some  days  because  of  water  in  the 
subway.  No,  she  'couldn't  get  along  on  his  wages 
and  if  it  wasn't  for  the  milk  and  groceries  which 
"the  society"  is  sending  us,  I  don't  know  what  we 
would  do.'  Help  from  clinic,  relief  society,  diet 
kitchen,  country  outings — in  these  was  the  answer 
in  this  family  to  our  questions. 

"The  reply  to  my  knock  at  the  door  of  the  next 
family  to  which  I  went  was  a  gruff  'Come  in.' 
It  was  a  man's  voice.  As  I  stepped  into  the  kitchen, 
its  owner  raised  himself  to  a  sitting  posture  on  the 
couch  bed  on  which  he  had  been  stretched.  He  was 
the  father  of  the  household.  He  belonged  to  the 
shift  that  went  on  at  2.30  in  the  afternoon  and 
worked  until  11  P.  M.  He  was  lying  down  'to  rest 
his  leg.'  He  thought  it  was  'a  touch  of  the 
rheumatism.' 

"And  he  told  me  what  other  men  had  told 
me,  that  there  was  a  lot  of  water  in  the  shaft 
where  he  was  working  and  he  nearly  always 


POVERTY  171 

had  that  trouble  when  he  was  working  'in  that  kind 
of  a  place/  .  .  . 

"Until  well  into  the  afternoon  of  that  day  I  con- 
tinued my  visiting,  finding  in  other  homes  conditions 
similar  to  those  hi  the  first  three — families  huddled 
and  crowded  into  rooms  in  a  way  that  made  the 
most  elementary  condition  of  healthful  existence 
impossible  of  attainment;  mothers  away  at  work  to 
bring  in  a  few  dollars  to  piece  out  the  family  income ; 
children  neglected;  sickness  of  some  kind  in  almost 
every  family;  relief  societies,  clinics,  dispensaries, 
churches  constantly  being  called  upon  for  help; 
people  who,  while  not  utterly  destitute,  were  ever 
trembling  on  the  edge  of  abject  poverty,  struggling 
against  hopeless  odds,  toiling  on  day  after  day,  yet 
unable  to  earn  enough  to  supply  themselves  with 
the  reasonable  material  comforts  of  life  and  in  more 
or  less  constant  fear  that  its  barest  necessities  might 
fail." 

The  conditions  which  Mr.  Matthews  describes 
in  these  homes  are  not  confined  to  New  York.  The 
Pittsburgh  Survey  revealed  them,  with  even  greater 
frightfulness  hi  Pittsburgh;  there  have  been  studies 
and  investigations  in  other  cities — Little  Falls, 
Lawrence,  Paterson,  Johnstown,  Buffalo,  Chicago, 
Baltimore,  Bethlehem — in  these,  and  so  far  as  we 
know,  in  every  other  great  center  of  industrial 
activity,  similar  conditions  prevail.  The  idle,  the 
dissipated,  the  inefficient,  are  sometimes  poor,  but 
the  New  York  families  that  live  on  $475  a  year 
are  always  poor. 


172  POVERTY 

4.     The  Burden  of  Poverty 

The  burden  of  poverty  falls  most  heavily  upon  the 
children.  One  bitter  morning,  while  the  passengers 
in  the  street  hurried  along  or  snuggled  into  then* 
wraps,  a  little  girl  of  perhaps  eight  years,  stepped 
from  a  baker  shop.  She  wore  a  calico  dress,  the 
sleeves  of  which  reached  barely  to  her  elbows.  Her 
stockings  were  darned  and  torn.  Her  shoes  were 
broken;  her  head  bare.  The  cold  had  pinched  her 
face  and  made  purple  blotches  on  her  cheek  bones. 
Her  hands  were  red.  Over  her  arm,  she  carried  a 
basket  hi  which  there  was  a  loaf  of  bread.  She 
munched  greedily  at  a  cruller  that  the  baker  had 
given  her.  She  was  a  child  of  poverty. 

As  I  stood,  watching,  I  thought  back  over  the 
descriptions  which  Victor  Hugo  wrote  of  the 
Thernardier  children — those  frightful  glimpses  of  the 
abysses  of  human  existence.3  But  this  was  the 
United  States,  the  land  of  freedom  and  opportunity! 

I  saw  this  child  growing  up  to  womanhood, 
hardened,  brutalized,  perhaps  embittered  by  the 
conditions  of  her  life.  Then  I  compared  her  with 
other  children  and  wondered  what  she  had  done  to 
deserve  her  fate.  And  I  knew  that  she  had  done 
nothing.  The  fault,  if  fault  there  was,  behind  her 
poverty,  lay  with  her  parents  over  whose  actions 
she  could  exercise  no  control. 

3  As,  for  example,  in  "Les  Mise"rables,"  Part  III — "A  voice  which 
was  not  Madame  Bourgous'  replied,  'I  beg  your  pardon,  sir.'  It 
was  a  hollow,  cracked,  choking  voice,  the  voice  of  an  old  man 
rendered  hoarse  by  dram  drinking  and  exposure  to  the  cold. 
Marius  turned  sharply  and  noticed  a  girl." 


A    CONTRAST    IN    BEDROOMS 

The  sleeping-rooms  of  the  very  rich  are  often  distinguished  by 
cleanliness  and  simple  beauty.  Above  is  shown  a  room  with  green 
walls  and  rugs,  and  white-enameled  furniture  with  green  designs. 
(From  "House  &  Garden.")  No  doubt  the  two  little  girls  occupy- 
ing the  filthy  bed  of  the  construction  camp  in  the  lower  picture 
would  grow  up  to  be  better  women  if  they  could  enjoy  better  living 
conditions.  (Hine  Photo  Co.) 


POVERTY  173 

This  girl  was  a  child  of  poverty — one  of  millions 
hi  the  United  States.  Her  kind  exist  where  wealth 
is  most  abundant;  where  the  greatest  progress  has 
been  made.  She  was  a  living,  human  embodiment 
of  the  message  which  is  contained  hi  the  figures  bear- 
ing on  poverty. 

The  prevalence  of  poverty  is  readily  measured  in 
terms  of  child  nutrition.  Where  children  lack 
sufficient  nourishing  food,  the  family  is  usually  poor. 

The  conditions  of  poverty  prevailing  hi  individual 
families  led  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  to  make 
an  investigation  of  Chicago  school  children,  which  it 
concluded  with  the  statement:  "Five  thousand 
children  who  attend  the  schools  are  habitually  hun- 
gry," while  ten  thousand  other  children  "do  not 
have  nourishing  food."  "Many  children  lack  shoes 
and  clothing,  many  have  no  beds  to  sleep  in.  .  .  . 
We  find  that  a  large  number  of  children  have  only 
bread  saturated  in  water,  day  after  day;  that  the 
noon  meal  is  bread  or  bananas,  and  an  occasional 
luxury  of  soup  made  from  pork  bones."4  Mrs. 
Bryant  sums  up  all  of  the  available  evidence  on  the 
subject  by  stating,  "The  probable  number  of 
seriously  underfed  school  children  in  New  York  and 
other  American  cities  is  ten  per  cent  of  the  school 
population."5  She  adds:  "The  terms  poverty  and 
under-feeding  are  practically  synonymous." 

4 For  further  details  see  "Social  Adjustment,"  Scott  Nearing. 
The  MacmUlan  Co.,  1911,  pp.  75ff.;  also  "Financing  the  Wage- 
Earner's  Family,"  Scott  Nearing.  B.  W.  Huebsch,  1913.  Chapters 
II,  III  and  IV. 

5  "School  Feeding,"  Louise  S.  Bryant.  Philadelphia:  J.  B. 
Lippincott  Co.,  p.  204. 


174  POVERTY 

Here,  perhaps  better  than  anywhere  else,  is  an 
adequate  measure  of  the  burden  of  poverty.  Rest- 
ing with  crushing  weight  upon  tiny  shoulders  that 
are  not  fitted  to  bear  any  burdens,  it  starves,  freezes, 
destroys  child  life. 

Many  people  believe  that  the  poor  deserve  their 
poverty  because  they  are  idle,  shiftless,  inefficient, 
vicious,  dissipated.  That  is  not  true,  but  even  if 
it  were,  here  are  the  children.  They  have  come  into 
the  world  at  the  behest  of  others;  they  are  as  yet 
incapable  of  self-support;  they  are  the  future  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  commonwealth — and  they  are 
being  wrung  dry  hi  their  babyhood  by  the  savage 
stresses  of  poverty. 

Space  does  not  permit  a  more  detailed  statement 
of  poverty  as  it  is,  and  no  more  detailed  statement 
is  necessary.  The  crimes  of  poverty  are  epitomized 
hi  its  crime  against  childhood. 

John  Galsworthy,  hi  one  of  his  most  striking 
passages,  thus  describes  poverty: 

"Of  a  night  without  stars — wind  withdrawn, 
God's  face  hidden,  indignity  near  me, 
Drink  and  the  paraffin  flares  to  sear  me — 
Dust-colored  hunger — so  was  I  born! 

"Of  a  city  noonday — sand  through  sieve 
Sifting  down,  dust  padding  the  glamor — 
I  of  the  desolate,  white-lipped  clamor 
Millioning  fester — so  do  I  live! 

"Of  a  poor-house  morning — not  asking  why, 

Breath  choked,  dry-eyed — death  of  me  staring; 
Voices  of  strangers,  and  no  one  caring — 
God!    who  hath  made  me! — so  shall  I  die!" 


POVERTY 


Poverty,  with  its  hideous  burdens,  casting  its 
sombre  shadows!  Poverty,  from  birth  to  death! 
Was  ever  frightfulness  more  frightful? 

5.     Crime  Begins  in  Poverty 

Poverty  must  be  judged  by  its  results.  Like  every 
tree,  it  may  be  known  by  its  fruit.  What  are  the 
fruits  of  poverty? 

The  Chinese  proverb,  "Crime  begins  in  poverty," 
seems  to  be  verified  by  the  experience  of  American 
penal  institutions.  The  people  who  go  to  jail  are 
usually  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  poor. 

The  recent  discussions  of  the  relation  between  vice 
and  poverty  have  gone  far  astray.  Commissions 
have  sought  to  demonstrate  that  there  was  a  direct 
connection  between  low  wages  and  prostitution. 
This  girl  was  making  six  dollars  a  week.  Because 
of  that  fact,  she  sold  her  body.  Such  a  connection 
rarely  exists.  The  relation  that  does  exist  is  far 
more  significant.  The  ranks  of  prostitution  are 
recruited  from  among  the  daughters  of  the  poor. 

Some  tune  ago  I  visited  a  night  court  into  which 
the  prostitutes  picked  up  in  the  street  or  found  in 
disorderly  houses  were  brought.  The  officer  hi 
charge  opened  the  records  and  we  went  over  them 
together,  covering  a  period  of  many  months.  The 
great  majority  of  girls  had  been  earning  less  than  six 
dollars  a  week  at  their  last  jobs;  a  small  number  had 
earned  between  six  and  eight  dollars;  and  only  an 
occasional  girl  had  more  than  eight  dollars.  These 
were  verified  records. 


176  POVERTY 

Two  recent  studies,  made  in  houses  of  refuge, 
where  the  great  proportion  of  the  girls  are  sent  for 
immorality,  show  that  practically  all  of  the  fathers 
of  the  girls  committed  were  earning  less  than  $1,000 
a  year.  In  the  case  of  one  institution,  the  records 
of  1,000  girls  committed  between  1909  and  1914 
were  examined.  In  this  entire  group  "no  father  was 
earning  more  than  $800." 

A  committee  of  the  Illinois  Senate  issued  an 
elaborate  report  on  vice  in  January,  1916.  In  this 
report  are  summarized  the  findings  of  this  com- 
mittee, together  with  the  findings  of  other  vice 
committees  and  commissions.  Here  are  the  first 
three  findings  of  this  committee  with  regard  to 
"the  social  disease  of  prostitution:"  "(1)  Poverty 
is  the  principal  cause,  direct  and  indirect,  of  prosti- 
tution." "(2)  Thousands  of  girls  are  driven  into 
prostitution  because  of  the  sheer  inability  to  keep 
body  and  soul  together  on  the  low  wages  received  by 
them."  "(3)  Thousands  of  girls  are  forced  into  in- 
dustrial employment  by  the  low  wages  received  by  the 
fathers;  that  they  are  separated  from  proper  home 
influences  at  an  exceedingly  early  age;  that  they 
are  inadequately  schooled  and  insufficiently  pro- 
tected; and  that  many  of  them  become  recruits  for 
the  system  of  prostitution."  The  committee  was 
unable  to  learn  of  "a  single  prostitute  in  any  city  of 
Illinois  visited  over  which  its  investigations  operated 
who  had  come  from  a  home  of  even  moderate  pros- 
perity," while  "the  highest  standard  of  morals 


POVERTY  177 

exists  among  the  girls  in  the  high  schools,  colleges 
and  universities  of  the  state."  Broken  homes, 
poverty,  lack  of  education,  inexperience  and  youth 
in  the  face  of  overwhehning  odds — these  are  the 
forces  that  breed  the  recruits  for  the  system  of  com- 
mercialized vice. 

The  daughters  of  the  poor  are  no  more  vicious  by 
nature  than  the  daughters  of  the  well-to-do.  They 
are  surrounded  by  temptation  and  subject  to  every 
conceivable  influence  that  would  make  them  go 
wrong.  The  protecting  care  of  the  well-to-do  home 
is  next  to  impossible  hi  the  homes  of  the  poor. 
Were  the  daughters  of  the  well-to-do  subject  to  the 
same  circumstances  of  life  that  besiege  the  daughters 
of  the  poor,  they,  too,  would  crowd  the  reform  schools 
and  houses  of  refuge. 

To  a  less  extent,  but  none  the  less  surely,  the  men 
who  find  their  way  into  the  paths  of  crime  are  mainly 
the  children  from  the  families  of  the  poor.  Street 
life  and  child  labor  breed  delinquency  and  it  is  the 
poor  boy  who  is  most  frequently  the  victim  of 
street  life  and  early  work. 

6.    Poverty  and  Disease 

The  connection  between  poverty  and  vice  and 
crime  is  difficult  to  trace.  There  are  uncertainties 
and  inaccuracies  that  cannot  be  completely  cleared 
up.  The  relation  between  poverty  and  disease  is 
unquestionable  and  unquestioned. 

A  well-known  tuberculosis  expert  recently  said, 

12 


178  POVERTY 

"I  go  about  talking  against  tuberculosis,  advising 
good  food,  milk,  eggs,  fresh  air,  sunshine;  and  while 
I  am  talking  I  know  that  on  the  wages  they  receive 
these  people  cannot  possibly  afford  the  things  about 
which  I  speak."  He  said  it  bitterly  and  with  a  half 
laugh.  Then  he  added,  "Most  of  the  advice  given 
to  the  poor  could  be  followed  if  they  were  not  poor." 

The  Survey  for  August  14,  1909,  carried  an  article 
by  Sherman  C.  Kingsbury,  superintendent  of  the 
United  Charities  of  Chicago,  "On  the  Trail  of  the 
White  Hearse."  In  August,  1908,  719  babies  died 
hi  Chicago  from  diarrheal  diseases,  and  a  map  with 
a  dot  on  it  for  each  death  shows  that  these  deaths 
clustered  in  the  wards  where  the  poor  lived.  In  this 
district,  "insanitary  plumbing  and  lack  of  health 
conveniences  do  their  deadly  work.  It  is  the  desti- 
nation of  the  poorest  milk  sold  in  the  city.  It  is 
where  streets  are  cleaned  least  often  or  not  at  all; 
where  stale  bread  and  oldest  meat  are  sold."  There, 
in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  the  children  died,  wholesale. 

Some  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  that  have 
appeared  during  recent  years  are  contained  in  a  study 
by  the  Federal  Children's  Bureau  of  infant  mortality 
in  Johnstown,  Pa.  They  are  doubly  valuable  at  this 
point,  since  they  cover  children  under  the  age  3 
one  year — children  that  cannot  possibly  be  held 
responsible  for  the  conditions  in  which  their  lives 
are  laid. 

Every  baby  born  hi  Johnstown  in  1911  was  fol- 
lowed up  for  one  year.  The  results  of  the  study  are 


POVERTY  179 

summarized  thus:  "The  highest  infant  mortality 
rate  is  found  .  .  .  where  the  poorest  most  lowly 
persons  of  the  community  live — families  of  the  men 
employed  to  do  the  unskilled  work  in  the  steel  mills 
and  mines"  (p.  16).  "Prospect  ranks  next  to 
Woodvale"  with  a  death  rate  of  200  per  1,000  chil- 
dren born.  The  district  "has  not  a  single  properly 
graded,  drained  and  paved  street"  (p.  17).  "The 
down-town  section,  where  are  to  be  found  many  of  the 
best-conditioned  houses,  the  homes  of  many  of  the 
well-to-do  people,  has  the  lowest  infant  mortality 
rate  in  the  city,  it  being  but  50"  (p.  19).  Here  is 
an  adequate  measure  of  the  difference  between 
the  deaths  of  271  and  50  babies  hi  a  thousand. 
The  death  rate  among  the  poor  is  more  than  five 
times  that  among  the  well-to-do. 

TABLE  IV.  —  INFANT  MORTALITY  RATE  IN  RELATION  TO  WAGES, 
JOHNSTOWN,  1911. 


Annual  Wage  of  Father.  1 

Infant  Deaths 
per  1,000  Births. 

Under  $521  

255.7 

$521  to  $624          

157  6 

$625  to  $899              

122  1 

$900  and  over  

96.8 

$1  200  and  over  

83  3 

Later  in  the  report  appears  the  above  grouping  of 
infant  deaths  according  to  the  income  of  the  father, 
which  shows  "the  greatest  incidence  of  infant 
deaths  where  wages  are  lowest  and  the  smallest 
incidence  where  they  are  highest,  indicating  clearly 


180  POVERTY 

the  relation  between  low  wages  and  ill  health  and 
infant  deaths"  (p.  45). 6 

Dr.  Louis  I.  Dublin,  the  statistician  of  the  Metro- 
politan Life  Insurance  Company,  New  York,  printed 
a  paper  on  "  Infant  Mortality  in  Fall  River."7 
The  study  covered  833  infants  born  hi  June,  July 
and  August,  1913.  Dr.  Dublin  summarizes  his 
findings  with  the  remark,  "If,  as  has  been  shown 
above,  the  infant  mortality  is  higher  where  mothers 
are  engaged  hi  outside  work,  we  have  discovered, 
in  the  low  earnings  of  the  father  one  more  link 
La  the  vicious  chain  of  causes  which  place  the  infant 
mortality  of  Fall  River  among  the  highest  in  the 
country." 

The  disastrous  effects  of  poverty  upon  infant 
mortality  have  been  demonstrated  again  and  again. 
William  B.  Bailey,  in  his  "  Modern  Social  Condi- 
tions," pages  251-52;  the  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee on  Physical  Deterioration,  Appendix;  the 
city  authorities  of  Berlin  and  other  German  cities; 
the  statisticians  in  charge  of  the  vital  statistics  of 
Great  Britain,  all  agree  that  in  the  trail  of  poverty 
there  follow  "High  death  rates,  a  pitiful  increase  in 
infant  mortality;  terrible  suffering  among  little 
children ;  scrofula  and  congenital  diseases ;  ophthalmia 
due  to  dark,  ill-ventilated,  over-crowded  rooms."8 

6  Similar  contrasts  between  the  infant  death  rate  among  the  poor 
and  the  well-to-do  are  shown  for  Montclair,  N.  J.,  the  third  city 
in  the  United  States  in  per  capita  wealth.     Infant  Mortality  Series, 
No.  4.     Washington:    Government  Printing  Office,  1915. 

7  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  June,  1915. 

8  Charles  R.  Henderson  before  the  American  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine, June  20,  1914.     Papers  and  Discussions,  1915,  pp.  64-65. 


POVERTY  181 

The  figures  cited  thus  far  have  dealt  with  infant 
mortality  alone.  There  is  equally  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  effect  of  poverty  on  sickness  and  death 
among  older  people.  One  excellent  example  is 
furnished  by  the  investigation  into  the  relation 
between  congested  living  and  typhoid,  conducted  in 
Pittsburgh  as  a  part  of  the  Pittsburgh  survey. 
After  citing  some  illustrations  of  congested  living, 
the  author  says:  "How  much  of  the  Pittsburgh 
typhoid  has  been  due  to  direct  contagion  from  such 
conditions  as  these  can  only  be  inferred  at  the 
present  writing.  "Several  cases  follow  in  which  the 
relation  is  apparent.  In  one  family,  consisting  of 
man,  wife,  four  children  and  three  lodgers,  crowded 
into  two  dirty  rooms,  a  three-year-old  boy  was 
taken  sick  in  October.  The  mother  did  the  family 
cooking  and  cared  for  the  patient.  The  cesspool 
in  the  yard,  which  was  in  bad  condition,  was  used  by 
two  families.  Another  member  of  the  family  became 
ill  November  3d,  and  the  mother  came  down  on 
December  19th.  There  were  seven  cases  in  this 
one  courtyard  within  the  year. 

"In  another  instance  a  man,  wife  and  nine  chil- 
dren were  living  hi  three  rooms.  The  sixteen-year- 
old  son  was  taken  sick  on  June  20th  and  was  sent 
to  the  hospital.  Then  hi  July  came  the  thirteen- 
year-old  daughter,  for  whom  her  mother  cared  at 
home.  The  mother  also  did  the  family  cooking. 
The  father,  mother  and  eleven-year-old  son  all 
slept  hi  the  same  room  with  the  patient.  All  three 


182  POVERTY 

of  them  followed  within  a  month,  and  another  son, 
twelve  years  old,  was  taken  sick  in  August. 

"In  another  family  of  eight,  the  sink  in  the 
kitchen  and  the  toilet  in  the  yard  were  in  a  very 
filthy  condition.  The  mother  and  one  son  were 
taken  sick  hi  August.  The  sick  and  the  well  slept 
together  in  crowded  bedrooms.  In  November  four 
more  members  of  the  family  came  down  with  the 
disease,  on  the  6th,  9th,  llth  and  15th  respectively."9 

This  is  one  illustration  of  a  general  situation  that 
is  met  with  wherever  the  facts  have  been  ascertained. 
Thus  in  Finsbury,  England,  the  death  rate  per 
thousand  hi  1903  for  those  families  that  lived  in 
one-room  tenements  was  38.9.  "Yet  the  rate  among 
occupants  of  four  or  more  rooms  was  5.6  and  for  the 
whole  borough,  19.6." 10  In  Glasgow,  "the  death 
rate  from  pulmonary  tuberculosis  is  2.4  per  thousand 
in  one-room  tenements,  1.8  in  two-room  tenements, 
and  0.7  in  all  other  houses."11  The  same  report,  as  a 
part  of  Appendix  XI,  contains  the  figures  in  the 
table  on  the  next  page. 

These  figures  bear  out  the  experience  of  American 
life  insurance  companies,  whose  tables  show  that 
the  length  of  life  among  wage-earners  is  far  shorter 
than  among  the  well-to-do.12  Disease  and  death  are 
the  logical  products  of  poverty. 

•"Thirty-five  Years  of  Typhoid,"  Frank  E.  Wing.  Charities, 
February  6,  1909,  p.  932. 

10  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration,  op.  cit.    London,  1904, 
Vol.  1,  p.  17. 

11  Idem. 

"  "Insurance,"  W.  A.  Fricke,  1898,  p.  240. 


POVERTY 


183 


TABLE' V. — DEATH  RATES  FROM  "ALL"  AND  FROM  "CERTAIN" 
'  CAUSES  IN  HOUSES  OF  SEVERAL  SIZES,  GLASGOW. 


Size  of  House. 

Deaths  per  1,000  of  Population. 

All  Causes. 

Respiratory 
Diseases. 

One  apartment               

32.7 
21.3 
13.7 
11.2 

7.7 
4.6 
2.4 
2.0 

Two  apartments  

Three  apartments  

Four  apartments  and  upward    

7.    " Let  Him  be  Poor" 

Poverty  is  no  longer  a  virtue.  Many  of  the 
philosophers  have  extolled  poverty.  During  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Church  preached  it.  As  an  antidote 
for  the  dissipated,  voluptuous  life  of  the  court,  it 
had  undoubted  merits,  but  hi  the  guise  that  it 
assumes  today  it  has  laid  aside  its  virtues  and  added 
richly  to  the  list  of  its  vices. 

Modern  thinkers  and  writers  teach  against  pov- 
erty. Ruskin  questioned  it,  writing  hi  his  "  Political 
Economy  of  Art"  of  "the  just  and  wholesome  con- 
tempt in  which  we  hold  poverty." 

Some  of  the  later  writers  curse  it.  Shaw  makes 
Undershaft  (Major  Barbara)  exclaim,  "The  worst  of 
crimes.  All  other  crimes  are  virtues  beside  it.  ... 
Poverty  blights  whole  cities;  spreads  horrible 
pestilences;  strikes  dead  the  very  souls  of  all  who 
come  within  sight  or  sound  or  smell  of  it." 

The  Introduction  to  the  same  play  explains,  hi 
greater  detail,  Shaw's  view  of  poverty.  He  assumes 


184  POVERTY 

that  in  a  certain  case  of  poverty  someone  protests, 
" Let  him  be  poor."  This  is  Shaw's  answer:  "Now 
what  does  this  'Let  him  be  poor'  mean?  It  means 
let  him  be  weak.  Let  him  be  ignorant.  Let  him 
become  a  nucleus  of  disease.  Let  him  be  a  standing 
exhibition  and  example  of  ugliness  and  dirt.  Let 
him  have  rickety  children.  Let  him  be  cheap  and 
let  him  drag  his  fellows  down  to  his  prices  by  selling 
himself  to  do  their  work." 

Many  centuries  ago  a  great  sage  observed,  "The 
destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty."  Not  their 
vice,  not  their  shiftlessness,  not  their  inefficiency, 
but  their  poverty  destroys  the  poor.  The  doctrine 
is  still  sound.  Today,  as  of  old,  the  thing  that 
destroys  the  poor  is  the  fact  that  they  are  poor. 

8.    Dives  and  Lazarus 

While  the  poor  are  being  destroyed  by  their 
poverty,  the  rich  are  enjoying  their  abundance. 
Lazarus  still  challenges  Dives,  and  the  tune  seems 
to  have  passed  when  he  is  content  merely  to  eat  of 
the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  rich  man's  table. 

Ruskin,  hi  his  essay  on  "Work,"  comments  on  the 
distinction  between  Lazarus  and  Dives,  which,  he 
says,  "exists  more  sternly,  I  suppose,  in  this  day, 
than  ever  in  the  world,  Pagan  or  Christian,  until 
now."  It  is  very  hard  to  determine  that  the  dis- 
tinction is  greater  at  one  time  than  it  is  at  another, 
but  certainly  the  contrast  exists  in  accentuated 
form.  Poverty  is  breeding  vice  and  crime,  scatter- 


POVERTY  185 

ing  disease,  killing  babies  and  wrecking  homes  while 
the  feast  of  Dives  go  on. 

The  winter  of  1914  found  times  hard  in  many  parts 
of  the  United  States.  There  was  one  large  city  in 
particular  where  the  straits  of  the  poor  were  so 
desperate  that  the  ordinary  means  of  dispensing 
relief  proved  utterly  inadequate  to  meet  the  task  in 
hand,  and  an  emergency  committee  was  organized. 
This  emergency  committee  inaugurated  an  energetic 
campaign  of  publicity.  The  newspapers  helped  them 
liberally,  and  they  told  the  people,  among  other 
things,  that  throughout  the  poorer  sections  of  the 
city  babies  were  dying  and  that  "56  cents  per  week 
will  save  one  baby." 

There  were  babies  in  the  city  who  were  starving 
and  "56  cents  per  week  will  save  one  baby."  While 
that  condition  still  persisted;  while  the  babies  were 
dying  for  lack  of  56  cents  a  week,  the  notables  of 
the  city  held  their  Assembly  Ball.  Fourteen  hun- 
dred people,  gorgeously  arrayed  and  decked  with 
jewels — people  who  were  well  fed  and  comfortably 
housed — came  together,  danced,  ate  and  drank  at 
an  expense  of  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars,  and  "56 
cents  will  save  one  baby." 

There  were  Lazarus  and  Dives.  The  starving 
babies  and  the  feasting,  merrymaking  throngs  of 
comfortable  men  and  women  who  had  never  known 
even  the  taste  of  want  and  hardship. 

There  is  something  worth  pursuing  beyond  the 
bare  contrast.  Here  are  Lazarus  and  Dives  living 


186  POVERTY 

side  by  side  in  the  same  city.  What  is  the  relation 
between  them?  Dives  is  bestowing  the  crumbs  on 
Lazarus.  Can  Lazarus  make  a  return  to  his 
benefactor? 

The  passage  quoted  from  Ruskin's  essay  on 
"Work"  goes  on  to  an  examination  of  that  problem. 
First,  Ruskin  points  out  the  just  basis  for  the  dis- 
tinction between  poverty  and  riches.  "The  lawful 
basis  of  wealth  is  that  a  man  who  works  should  be 
paid  fair  value  of  his  work;  and  that  if  he  does  not 
choose  to  spend  it  today  he  should  have  free  leave 
to  keep  it  and  spend  it  tomorrow."  There  is  another 
side  to  the  question:  "The  power  held  over  those 
who  earn  wealth  by  those  who  levy  or  exact  it." 
After  explaining  the  method  used  by  the  medieval 
baron  to  secure  wealth  by  preying  on  the  results  of 
other  men's  labor,  Ruskin  comments:  "Money  is 
now  exactly  what  mountain  promontories  were  in 
old  times.  The  barons  fought  for  them  fairly; 
the  strongest  and  cunningest  got  them,  then  forti- 
fied them  and  made  every  one  who  passed  below 
pay  toll.  Well,  now  capital  is  exactly  what  crags 
were  then.  Men  fight  fairly  (we  will  at  least  grant 
so  much,  though  it  is  more  than  we  ought)  for  their 
money;  but  once  having  got  it,  the  fortified  million- 
aire can  make  everybody  who  passes  below  pay  toll 
to  his  million  and  build  another  tower  of  his  money 
castle;  and  I  can  tell  you,  the  poor  vagrants  by  the 
roadside  suffer  now  quite  as  much  from  the  bag- 
baron  as  ever  they  did  from  the  crag-baron.  Bags 
and  crags  have  just  the  same  result  on  rags." 


POVERTY  187 

If  this  analysis  is  correct,  a  new  relation  appears. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  Lazarus  laid  the  feast  which 
Dives  ate,  and  received,  as  his  part,  a  morsel  from 
the  leavings? 

9.     Why  are  They  Poor? 

The  appeal  from  the  Emergency  Aid  Committee 
in  the  city  where  babies  died  for  the  lack  of  56  cents' 
worth  of  milk,  while  1,400  of  the  leading  citizens 
spent  then*  money  liberally  on  a  dance,  stated  some 
plain  truths.  It  also  contained  some  of  the  most 
extraordinary  comments.  Thus,  for  example,  one 
statement  (February  12,  1915)  reads:/ 

"THIS  is  NOT  AN  APPEAL  FOR  ORDINARY  CHARITY 
— IT  is  AN  APPEAL  TO  SAVE  A  CITY  FROM 
CALAMITY. 

"Sober,  upright,  industrious,  God-fearing  men  are 
out  of  work — thousands  of  them.  In  cold  homes, 
the  women  and  children  are  waiting,  with  pathetic 
patience.  They  are  hungry — often  ill — and  day  by 
day  the  desolation  and  desperation  increase.  It 
does  not  matter  what  cause  has  brought  about  the 
misery.  It  is  enough  that  it  is  here."  Below  these 
sentences  were  the  names  of  the  wives  of  many  of 
the  leading  business  men  in  the  city. 

Notice  the  last  sentence:  "It  does  not  matter 
what  cause  has  brought  about  the  misery."  Could 
anything  be  more  extraordinary?  If  the  city  had 


188  POVERTY 

been  plagued  with  flies,  if  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  or 
tuberculosis  were  raging,  the  very  first  question 
raised  would  be  the  question  of  cause.  Why  try 
to  cure  fever  if  the  germs  are  being  fed  hi  by  the 
billions  through  the  city  water  supply?  Here  is 
widespread  misery.  The  first  question  that  would 
naturally  present  itself  to  the  man  of  even  moderate 
intelligence  is  the  question  "Why?" 

Poverty  is  prevalent.  It  is  cursing  whole  sections 
of  the  population.  The  question  of  first  importance 
is  this:  "Why  is  poverty?" 

Recent  years  have  witnessed  a  number  of  energetic 
attempts  to  analyze  the  causes  of  poverty.  No 
one  can  say  finally  this  cause  or  that  one  is  respon- 
sible for  a  definite  percentage  of  the  poverty  in  the 
community,  but  more  general  statements  may, 
with  justice,  be  made. 

There  was  a  time  when  people  were  sent  to  prison 
for  debt  just  as  they  were  sent  to  prison  for  theft. 
The  assumption  was  that  the  poor  man  was  respon- 
sible for  his  poverty.  He  was  vicious,  drunken, 
lazy,  inefficient.  These  things,  like  any  other  per- 
sonal offenses,  were  punished  personally. 

The  latest  work  that  has  been  done  on  poverty 
makes  it  possible  to  say,  unequivocally,  that  personal 
vices  and  personal  shortcomings  are  not  the  chief 
causes  of  poverty.  Indeed,  they  are  insignificant 
when  compared  with  the  larger  social  causes  that 
are  responsible  for  poverty. 

An  examination  of  the  figures   cited   in   Bliss' 


POVERTY  189 

" Encyclopedia  of  Social  Reform;"  in  Warner's 
" American  Charities;"  in  Devine's  " Misery  and 
its  Causes;"  or  in  the  reports  published  by  the 
larger  charity  societies  indicates  that  the  personal 
shortcomings  play  very  little  part  in  the  poverty 
that  brings  people  to  the  charity  societies.  Social 
forces  like  unemployment,  accidents,  sickness,  wid- 
owhood and  the  like  are  largely  responsible  for 
poverty. 

Hollander,  in  his  masterful  summary  of  the 
causes  of  poverty,  makes  this  statement:  "The 
great  supply-sources  of  poverty  are  the  underpaid, 
the  unemployed  and  the  unemployable."13  Bliss, 
Warner  and  Devine  set  their  standards  largely  in 
terms  of  pauperism.  The  people  covered  by  the 
figures  asked  for  help.  Hollander  is  facing  the 
matter  in  a  broader  way  and  making  his  estimates 
in  terms  of  the  entire  community. 

A  moment's  reflection  will  reveal  the  justice  of 
Hollander's  position. 

The  facts  regarding  the  relation  between  the  cost 
of  decent  living  and  the  wages  paid  by  American 
industry  have  already  been  stated.  Millions  of 
adult  male  workers  are  receiving  a  wage  that  can- 
not possibly  support  a  family  hi  physical  health  and 
social  decency.  It  is  this  fact  that  leads  Hollander 
to  place  the  underpaid  first  as  the  chief  supply- 
source  of  poverty.  He  writes:  "Poverty,  hi  its 
practical  aspect,  is  a  phase  of  the  wage  question. 

«  "The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  J.  H.  Hollander,  p.  107. 


190  POVERTY 

Large  bodies  of  toilers  are  in  receipt  of  incomes  less 
than  enough  to  maintain  wholesome  existence,  and 
it  is  from  this  class  that  the  mass  of  the  poor  are 
mainly  recruited."14 

The  chief  cause  of  poverty  is  low  wages.  People 
are  poor  because  the  rate  of  wages  paid  by  the 
industries  of  the  United  States  will  not  permit  them 
to  be  anything  but  poor. 

Those  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking  of 
poverty  as  a  result  of  personal  vices,  should  reflect 
on  the  relations  that  actually  exist  between  people 
in  the  various  walks  of  life  in  present-day  society. 
No  group  of  people  has  a  monopoly  either  on  the 
vices  or  the  virtues.  Not  all  of  the  people  who 
drink  are  poor;  not  all  vicious  people  are  poor; 
nor  are  all  dissipated,  extravagant,  idle,  shiftless, 
inefficient  people  poor.  Such  people  may  be  found 
in  every  economic  group  from  the  poorest  to  the 
richest.  There  is  one  group  of  people  who  are 
always  poor — the  people  who  are  paid  less  than  a 
living  wage.  The  relation  between  low  wages  and 
poverty  is  as  intimate  as  the  relation  between  cholera 
microbes  and  cholera.  The  poor  are  poor,  hi  the 
first  instance,  because  the  wages  they  get  are  poverty 
wages. 

How  inevitable,  then,  the  conclusion  which  Pro- 
fessor Hollander  sets  forth  on  the  next  page  of  his 
book.  "  In  the  largest  sense,  it  remains  true  that  the 
most  effective  aid  for  those  below  the  poverty  line 
lies  in  the  increase  of  income"  (p.  47). 

14  "The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  J.  H.  Hollander,  p.  46.      - 


POVERTY  191 

Next  to  low  wages,  the  great  outstanding  cause  of 
poverty  is  unemployment,  which  Doctor  Devine 
describes  as  the  greatest  of  all  maladjustments. 
Rowntree  and  Lasker  write  of  it  as  "a  social  evil 
appalling  in  its  magnitude."15 

Unemployment  is  always  present.  "A  definite 
quota,  varying  from  two  to  ten  per  cent  of  the  work- 
ing force  of  every  industrial  community,  are  doomed 
at  any  given  tune  to  involuntary  idleness."16  Census, 
state  and  private  figures  show  that  there  is  always 
an  irreducible  minimum  of  unemployment.  Sick- 
ness, accidents  and  shortage  of  work  prevent  the 
worker  from  engaging  in  his  customary  pursuits. 
All  of  the  recent  analyses  of  the  causes  of  poverty 
place  unemployment  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  the 
causes  that  lead  to  poverty. 

There  are  three  other  factors  that,  though  less 
immediate  and  direct,  cannot  be  overlooked,  because 
of  their  ultimate  connection  with  poverty:  (1)  The 
poor  man  pays  the  highest  rents  and  the  highest 
prices  (because  he  buys  in  small  lots)  and  gets  the 
poorest  stuff;  (2)  We  eagerly  seize  the  products  of 
poverty;  (3)  We  let  his  children  grow  up  in  poverty 
and  become  accustomed  to  it.  These,  again,  are 
social  forces. 

One  ward  in  Johnstown  where  an  appallingly  high 
infant  death  rate  was  reported,  had  not  a  single 
decently  graded,  paved  and  drained  street.  Any- 

15  "Unemployment,"  London,  1911,  p.  310. 
""Abolition  of  Poverty,"  op.  tit.,  p.  82. 


192  POVERTY 

thing  is  good  enough  for  the  poor.  Their  curse  is 
their  poverty.  They  have  no  effective  means  of 
protest,  and  because  of  this  fact,  a  certain  type  of 
cowardly,  wolfish  human  creatures  prey  on  them, 
exploit  them  and  wring  from  them  every  penny 
that  they  can  exact. 

Theoretically,  the  weak  and  the  defenseless  should 
be  given  special  consideration.  They  are  unable  to 
take  care  of  themselves  adequately,  and  hence  their 
fellows  should  care  for  them.  Practically,  the  poor 
are  exploited  because  they  are  poor. 

High  prices  and  high  rents  are  as  effective  hi 
grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor  as  are  low  wages. 
Both  add  to  the  intolerable  pressure  that  life  places 
upon  them. 

We  eagerly  seize  the  products  of  poverty.  Many 
things  are  cheap  because  of  the  cheap  labor  done  on 
them.  Bargains  are  all  too  frequently  tainted  with 
the  bitterness  of  poverty,  yet  people  are  glad  to 
get  bargains,  without  being  over  anxious  to  know 
their  origin,  lest  their  enjoyment  of  them  might  be 
decreased  by  the  knowledge  of  conditions  surround- 
ing their  origin. 

Low  wages,  high  rents,  high  prices  and  bargains 
are  some  of  the  social  forces  behind  poverty.  Dives 
gains  through  low  wages,  lives  on  high  prices  and 
high  rents  and  luxuriates  on  cheap,  poverty-stained 
products.  The  well-to-do,  respectable  part  of  the 
community  depends  for  much  of  its  comfort  and 
respectability  upon  the  exploitation  of  the  poor. 


POVERTY  193 

Low  wages,  high  prices  and  cheap  prices  are 
approved,  commanded,  enjoyed  and  defended  by 
those  who  reap  the  benefits  from  them.  Meanwhile 
the  weight  of  poverty  rests  a  crushing  load  upon  the 
poor. 

They  are  poor  because  wages  are  low  and  rents 
and  prices  are  high.  Then-  poverty  makes  possible 
the  ease  of  the  respectable  and  the  well-to-do. 
The  weight  of  civilization  rests  most  heavily  upon 
the  backs  of  those  who  are,  of  all  others,  least  able 
to  bear  its  burdens. 

And  then,  facing  this  abyss  which  we  have  created 
and  maintained,  we  dare  to  say,  "God's  poor." 
Many  a  social  crime  besides  poverty  has  been  laid 
at  the  door  of  the  Almighty,  but  surely,  never  was 
the  affrontery  more  complete.  God's  poor? 

Men  working  for  prosperous  industries  are  paid 
wages  that  make  poverty  inevitable.  God's  poor? 
The  Steel  Industry's  poor;  the  Cotton  Mills' 
poor;  the  Coal  Mining  poor  and  the  Contractors' 
poor! 

Unemployment  is  rampant  and  there  are  no 
intelligent  steps  taken  to  prevent  it  or  to  distribute 
the  risks  and  hardships  when  unemployment  does 
come.  Rents  and  prices  are  high.  The  bargain 
hunter  eagerly  snatches  the  products  of  dying  wages. 
Babies  grow  up  to  grovel  in  the  squalor  of  the  rook- 
eries and  slums.  God's  poor?  Our  poor! 

Poverty  is  a  social  crime.  The  cause  of  poverty 
lies  at  our  doors.  People  are  poor  because  we  make 

u 


194  POVERTY 

them  poor.     Children  are  growing  up  in  poverty 
because  we  allow  them  to  do  it. 

10.     The  Challenge  of  Poverty 

Perhaps  these  things  about  poverty  are  not  true. 
In  that  case,  they  need  give  the  community  no 
concern,  but  if  they  are  true — there  are  few  students 
of  the  problem  who  question  their  truth — poverty  is 
one  of  the  most  savage  challenges  that  confronts 
modern  civilization.  That  the  richest  country  and 
the  richest  centers  in  that  rich  country  should  per- 
mit children  to  grow  up  under  the  conditions  of  life 
that  poverty  involves  would  be  grotesque  if  it  were 
not  so  sinister.  Side  by  side,  the  hovel  and  the 
palace. 

The  hovel  challenges  the  palace — questions  it, 
threatens  it,  and  the  palace  is  built  on  the  hovel. 

When  the  Great  Louis  impoverished  France  to 
build  Versailles,  he  was  erecting  his  palace  on  the 
hovels  of  the  French  peasantry.  If  his  taxes  had 
been  less  heavy,  the  people  of  France  could  have 
afforded  better  homes.  His  palace  was  built,  how- 
ever, and  he  and  his  court  lived  in  boundless  luxury 
while  the  people  of  France  suffered  hardship  and 
privation. 

A  great  man  of  England — one  of  the  hereditary 
chiefs  of  the  country — owned  a  piece  of  property  in 
one  of  the  larger  English  cities  upon  which  there 
had  been  erected  a  frightful  slum.  Year  after 
year  the  agents  of  the  great  one  collected  rentals 


POVERTY  195 

from  the  tenants.  Year  after  year  the  great  one 
rode  and  hunted  and  played  and  enjoyed.  He  was 
living  on  the  proceeds  of  a  slum.  They  were  poor. 
He  was  rich.  From  their  meager  incomes  they  paid 
out  large  sums  in  rentals  to  this  man  who  had 
never  known  what  it  was  to  want. 

Furthermore,  it  was  these  slum'  dwellers  and  their 
kind  who  had  built  the  palace  and  who  were  turning 
out  each  day  the  cotton  and  steel  upon  which  the 
prosperity  of  England  rested.  They  worked  while 
the  great  one  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  their  labor. 

The  Children's  Bureau,  hi  its  report  on  Johnstown, 
stated  that  where  the  infant  death  rate  was  highest, 
lived  the  "families  of  men  employed  to  do  the 
unskilled  work  in  steel  mills  and  mines."  They 
shoulder  the  dirty  work  of  the  world,  and  out  of  the 
proceeds  of  their  activity,  while  they  receive  a 
pittance,  the  masters  build  their  gorgeous  living 
places. 

The  masters  have  perpetuated  the  slum  for  their 
profit.  They  maintain  poverty  because  for  them  it 
means  prosperity.  The  real  estate  interests  fight 
housing  reform;  the  manufacturing  interests  fight 
minimum  wage  laws  and  child  labor  laws.  They 
keep  the  slum  because  there  is  profit  hi  the  slum. 
They  pay  dying  wages  because  there  is  profit  in 
dying  wages.  They  employ  child  labor  because 
there  is  profit  in  child  labor.  The  leaders  of  indus- 
try and  finance  fight  trade  unions  and  socialism 
because,  in  the  promise  of  unionism  and  socialism, 
they  see  lessened  opportunity  for  profit  to  themselves. 


196  POVERTY 

Victor  Hugo  makes  Gwynplaine  exclaim,  "The 
heaven  of  the  rich  is  built  upon  the  hell  of  the 
poor." 

That  is  true.  The  rich  know  it.  The  poor  are 
learning  it. 

Had  the  masters  wished  to  banish  the  slum  and 
abolish  dying  wages,  they  might  have  done  so. 
Had  they  been  as  anxious  to  wipe  poverty  from  the 
earth  as  they  have  been  to  build  up  property  rights, 
they  could  have  done  so.  The  will,  not  the  way, 
was  lacking.  When  they  prayed,  as  some  of  them 
did  pray,  "Thy  kingdom  come  on  earth,"  they  were 
serving  with  the  lips.  The  heart  and  the  mind  were 
both  bent  on  a  retention  of  the  present  system. 

The  poor  could  not.  The  rich  would  not,  and 
while  poverty,  with  vice  and  crime  and  ignorance, 
her  running  mates  hi  the  race  of  shame,  stalked 
abroad,  the  masters  rested,  smug  and  satisfied. 

Whose  was  the  fault?  The  ignorant  were  poor; 
the  educated  and  culture  were  content.  Says  the 
old  Bishop,  "This  soul  is  full  of  shadow;  sin  is  therein 
committed.  The  guilty  person  is  not  the  person 
who  committed  the  sin,  but  the  person  who  created 
the  shadow."17  Poverty  casts  its  shadow.  Crime, 
vice  and  ignorance  flourish  there.  The  masters, 
and  not  the  poor,  cast  the  shadow. 

The  well-to-do — the  masters  of  the  Industrial 
Regime — who  direct  its  activities  and  reap  its 
benefits  are  living  on  the  backs  of  the  poor. 

17  "Les  Misdrables,"  Victor  Hugo,  Vol.  I,  Part  1. 


THE    VAMPIRE 

The  worker  in  his  sweatshop,  ignorant  of  the  fat  exploiter  who  is 
sucking  out  the  blood  of  his  life.  (A  vampire  is  a  monster  which 
lives  upon  human  blood,  according  to  old  legends.  A  cartoon  by 
E.  M.  Lilien.) 


POVERTY  197 

11.    We  Must  Get  Off  Their  Backs 

Are  we  willing  to  get  off  from  the  backs  of  the 
poor?  Are  we  willing  to  relieve  them — the  weak — 
of  the  social  burdens  that  should  be  borne  only  by 
the  strong?  Are  we  content  to  do  our  part  hi  the 
eradication  of  poverty? 

The  first  move  in  getting  off  the  backs  of  the  poor 
is  to  pay  them  living  wages.  The  community  will 
not  fulfil  its  duty  to  the  workers  until  every  person 
who  works  has  a  living  wage  hi  return  for  his  work. 
If  the  man  is  in  a  position  that  requires  him  to  sup- 
port a  family,  that  wage  must  include  family 
support. 

No  less  important  than  the  living  wage  is  the 
regulation  of  the  conditions  of  work  so  that  due  allow- 
ance is  made  for  unemployment,  for  trade  risks, 
industrial  diseases,  accidents  and  the  like.  By  such 
means  the  play  of  industrial  forces  may  be  paid  for 
by  the  industry  as  a  whole  and  not  by  any  individual 
worker.  The  insurance  principle — that  risks  are 
less  burdensome  when  they  are  borne  co-operatively 
by  a  group — must  become  one  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  industry. 

Those  who  would  get  off  the  backs  of  the  poor 
must  see  to  it  that  the  things  supplied  to  the  poor 
are  good  in  quality  and  fair  in  price.  If  it  is  unjust 
to  exploit  the  well-to-do,  who  can  hi  a  measure 
protect  themselves,  it  is  doubly  unjust  to  exploit 
the  poor  who  are  defenseless. 

Above  all  else,  if  we  would  get  off  the  backs  of  the 


198  POVERTY 

poor,  we  must  relieve  the  children  of  the  poor  of  the 
intolerable  burdens  of  poverty.  They  die  in  baby- 
hood; they  are  underfed,  ill-clad,  badly  housed  and 
deprived  of  the  manifold  advantages  that  flow  from 
good  home  life.  They  must  be  fed,  clothed,  housed 
and  given  every  possible  educational  advantage  if 
they  are  to  have  even  the  semblance  of  a  fair  oppor- 
tunity in  the  race  of  life. 

We  must  get  off  their  backs — economically  and 
socially.  We  must  insure  them  fair  treatment  and 
guarantee  to  their  children  equal  opportunity. 


CHAPTER  V 
RICHES 

1.    The  Heaven  of  the  Rich 

T>OVERTY  is  an  individual  curse  and  a  social  sin. 
•••  It  blights  and  destroys  the  lives  of  its  victims. 
It  is  a  disease,  and  existing,  as  it  does,  side  by  side 
with  the  unparalleled  increase  in  productive  power 
that  has  resulted  from  the  use  of  the  machine,  it 
challenges  civilization. 

Poverty  is  an  outstanding  feature  of  present-day 
civilization.  So  is  riches. 

Side  by  side  hi  the  United  States  are  great  want 
and  great  wealth.  Poverty  and  riches  seem  bound 
to  each  other  by  some  fast-holding  tie.  Where  one 
is  found,  there,  also,  is  the  other.  On  closer  examina- 
tion, it  appears  that  the  heaven  of  the  rich  is  founded 
upon  this  hell  of  the  poor.  The  rich  man  for  his 
paradise  is  dependent  upon  the  poor  man  in  his 
squalor.  Lazarus  sets  the  feast  for  Dives  and  then 
eats  of  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  rich  man's 
table. 

The  lot  of  the  poor  is  a  veritable  hell — hideous  in 
all  of  its  aspects.  The  more  closely  it  is  viewed,  the 
more  frightful  does  it  appear. 

The  frightfulness  of  poverty  needs  no  further 

(199) 


200     ,  RICHES 

emphasis,  after  the  facts  cited  in  the  last  chapter. 
The  time  has  come,  however,  to  turn  from  the  hell 
of  poverty  to  an  examination  of  the  heaven  of 
riches. 

Americans  have  a  certain  abiding  faith  hi  riches 
that  has  led  to  no  end  of  misunderstanding  among 
people  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  They  praise 
riches  hi  their  homes,  extol  it  in  their  schools,  bow 
to  it  in  the  community  life. .  Even  though  money  is 
the  root  of  all  evil,  they  dig  for  it  assiduously. 

Everywhere  there  is  a  feeling  that  the 'saying  of 
Solomon,  "With  all  thy  getting,  get  wisdom," 
should  be  so  altered  as  to  read,  "With  all  thy  getting, 
get  riches."  "For  surely,"  they  contend,  "all  things 
that  thou  canst  desire  are  not  to  be  compared  with 
them." 

The  belief  in  riches  is  so  general  in  the  United 
States  that  it  resolves  itself  into  a  kind  of  creed  or 
confession  of  faith.  Nine  men  and  women  out  of 
every  ten  who  are  not  rich  would  jump  at  the  chance 
to  be  rich  without  inquiring  seriously  into  the 
causes  or  the  effects  of  riches.  The  hope  for  riches 
and  the  belief  in  riches  has  become  a  species  of 
American  second  nature. 

The  last  hundred  years  have  seen  a  phenomenal 
increase  of  riches  in  the  United  States,  and  par- 
ticularly since  the  Civil  War,  the  number  and  the 
wealth  of  individual  rich  men  have  grown  fabulously. 
Today,  America  numbers  her  millionaires  by  the 
thousands,  and  there  are  about  one  hundred  and 


RICHES  201 

fifty  persons  whose  incomes  exceed  a  million  dollars 
a  year.  The  leading  cities  are  full  of  palatial  resi- 
dences; pleasure  hotels  are  able  to  collect  immense 
fees  for  the  supply  of  regal  luxury;  vast  funds  are 
donated  for  charity  and  philanthropy;  and  the  pri- 
vate and  public  expenditures  of  the  rich  in  pursuit, 
largely,  of  their  own  enjoyment  are  staggering  in 
amount. 

There  is  an  oft-quoted  saying  of  a  great  teacher, 
"Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon."  The 
assumption  is  that  men  must  choose  between  the 
two  fealties. 

Confronted  by  the  choice  between  the  service  of 
God  and  of  Mammon,  Americans,  for  the  most  part, 
have  frankly  chosen  Mammon.  Their  attitude 
toward  the  question  makes  it  quite  evident  that 
they  believe  that  the  service  of  Mammon  is,  on  the 
whole,  a  quite  acceptable  substitute  for  the  service 
of  God. 

There  lies  the  issue.  Can  men  serve  Mammon? 
Granted  that  they  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon, 
is  the  service  of  Mammon  a  desirable  one?  Can 
the  Mammon-server  survive? 

2.     The  Wealth  Machine 

A  very  small  number  of  people  are  rich.  In 
olden  times,  to  be  rich  meant  to  have  plate,  bullion, 
jewels  and  sometimes  great  landed  estates  as  well. 
The  rich  man  today  is  in  a  very  different  position. 

Incidentally,   the  modern  rich  man  may  have 


202  RICHES 

a  supply  of  plate,  bullion  and  jewels,  but  in  the  first 
instance  he  secures  possession  of  income-yielding 
property — stocks,  bonds,  mortgages  and  the  like. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  a  man  may  make  a 
living.  He  may  work  for  it  or  he  may  own  for  it. 
The  worker  receives  an  income  because  of  some  ser- 
vice that  he  renders.  The  owner's  income  is  based 
on  his  ownership. 

The  contrast  may  be  illustrated  in  this  concrete 
manner.  Here  is  a  man  who  manages  a  signal  tower 
for  the  railroad  company.  Each  year  he  receives 
$1,000  for  his  services.  Yonder  a  man  owns  $20,000 
of  the  railroad  company's  five  per  cent  bonds.  He 
receives  $1,000  a  year  for  his  ownership.  The  tower- 
man  is  paid  because  he  works.  The  bond-man  is 
paid  because  he  owns. 

The  claim  of  the  property  owner  is  prior  and  is 
perpetual.  Modern  business  is  so  organized  that 
the  first  shock  of  industrial  depression  is  carried  by 
the  discharged  workman.  The  dividends  may  be 
paid  on  the  stocks.  The  interest  will  be  continued 
on  the  bonds.  The  first  burdens  of  industrial  hard- 
ship are  saddled  on  the  wage-earner.  The  rich  man 
who  invests  his  money  carefully  is  a  thousand  times 
more  secure  than  the  worker  who  is  engaged  in  the 
productive  work  of  the  community. 

There  has  never  been  established  a  right  to  work, 
but  there  is  a  virtual  right  to  property  income.  At 
all  times  money  invested  in  a  savings  bank  will  draw 
interest.  Practically  the  same  security  is  found  in 


RICHES  203 

gilt-edge  bonds,  mortgages  and  other  forms  of 
income-yielding  property. 

The  modern  wealth  machine  has  been  so  devised 
and  evolved  that  it  is  only  necessary  for  an  individual 
to  become  the  owner  of  property  in  order  to  be  secure 
in  his  income.  A  man  who  can  get  title  to  $100,000 
hi  money  can  exchange  it  for  five  per  cent  bonds  or 
mortgages,  and  receive  an  income  of  $5,000  a  year. 
He  may  live  for  forty  years,  drawing  this  income  each 
year.  Then  he  may  place  the  $100,000  in  trust  for 
his  son,  who  lives,  let  us  say,  sixty  years,  drawing 
the  income  each  year.  This  son,  in  turn,  may 
hand  the  property  on  to  a  grandson,  but  even  the 
two  generations  of  father  and  son,  from  this  $100,000 
have  received  $5,000  a  year  for  100  years,  or  $500,000 
hi  wealth.  It  is  perfectly  conceivable  that  neither 
of  them  earned  the  money.  No  one  asks  that 
question.  The  possession  of  $100,000  entitles  the 
owner  and  his  heirs  to  a  $5,000  income  so  long  as 
they  continue  to  own  the  $100,000. 

One  of  the  weekly  papers,  in  a  recent  issue,  carried 
this  amusing  parody  on  the  wealth  machine. 

"What  did  you  tell  that  man  just  now?" 

"I  told  him  to  hurry." 

"What  right  have  you  to  tell  him  to  hurry?" 

"I  pay  him  to  hurry." 

"What  do  you  pay  him?" 

"A  dollar  a  day." 

"Where  do  you  get  tne  money  to  pay  him  with?" 

"I  sell  bricks." 


204  RICHES 

"Who  makes  the  bricks?" 

"Redoes." 

"How  many  bricks  does  he  make?" 

"Twenty-four  men  can  make  24,000  bricks  in  a 
day." 

"Then,  instead  of  you  paying  him,  he  pays  you 
six  dollars  a  day  for  standing  around  and  telling  him 
to  hurry." 

"Well,  but  I  own  the  machines." 

"How  did  you  get  the  machines?" 

"Sold  bricks  and  bought  them." 

"Who  made  the  bricks?" 

"Shut  up,  he  might  hear  you." 

This  is  one  proposition  from  which  there  is  no 
escape.  Bricks,  shoes,  chairs  and  every  other  usable 
thing  were  made  by  somebody.  The  significant 
question  relates  to  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
secured  by  the  user.  Cash  payment  is  not  final. 
There  are  reasons  behind  even  cash  payment. 

There  was  an  excellent  illustration  during  the 
whiter  of  1913-14  of  the  workings  of  the  wealth 
machine.  Reports  indicated  that  in  New  York 
City  a  very  large  number  of  persons — from  250,000 
to  400,000 — who  had  work  ordinarily,  were  un- 
employed. They  and  those  dependent  on  them 
needed  food  and  clothing.  The  landlord  demanded 
rent,  but  there  was  no  work,  because  thousands  of 
industrial  establishments  had  shut  down  tempo- 
rarily. During  each  of  those  winter  months, 
when  the  suffering  was  so  general  and  so  intense, 


DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  DINING  ROOMS 
The  suffering  and  destitute  old  woman  shown  above  had  to  use  hoi- 
stove  for  dining  room  table.  She  slept  in  the  same  room.  Photo- 
graph taken  by  Charles  F.  Weller  and  used  by  permission  from 
"Neglected  Neighbors."  The  marble  fireplace,  carved  ceiling,  costly 
paintings  and  elaborate  furniture  of  the  dining  room  shown  below, 
suggest  the  luxury  enjoyed  at  meals  by  wealthy  families.  (Photo 
from  "House  &  Garden.") 


RICHES  205 

one  man,  living  near  New  York,  was  in  receipt 
of  an  income  of  about  five  millions  a  month.  Was 
he  in  need  of  those  five  millions?  Hardly!  He 
was  already  the  possessor  of  some  $800,000,000 
of  wealth,  and  it  was  for  that  reason  that  he  received 
an  income  of  about  $60,000,000  a  year.  Here  was 
a  man  of  fabulous  wealth,  with  an  income  of  more 
than  a  hundred  dollars  a  minute,  while  almost  at  his 
door  there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of  industrious 
people  unable  to  get  work — hungry,  cold,  suffering. 

The  situation  is  grotesque.  It  fulfils,  with  dread- 
ful exactness,  the  saying,  '"To  him  that  hath  shall 
be  given,  he  shall  have  more  abundance;  but  from 
him  that  hath  not,  shall  be  taken  away  even  that 
which  he  seemeth  to  have." 

The  wealth  machine,  enabling  some  to  live  by 
owning  upon  the  products  made  by  those  who  live 
by  working,  has  produced  no  more  vicious  result  than 
this — the  workers  suffer  hardship  while  the  owners 
bask  in  nameless  luxury.1 


1  Note  this  keen  characterization  of  the  present  industrial  order  in 
Edward  Bellamy's  "Looking  Backward": 

"By  way  of  attempting  to  give  the  reader  some  general  impres- 
sion of  the  way  people  lived  together  in  those  days,  and  especially 
of  the  relations  of  the  rich  and  poor  to  one  another,  perhaps  I 
cannot  do  better  than  compare  society  as  it  then  was  to  a  prodi- 
gious coach  which  the  masses  of  humanity  were  harnessed  to  and 
dragged  toilsomely  along  a  very  hilly  and  sandy  road.  The  driver 
was  hunger,  and  permitted  no  lagging,  though  the  pace  was  nec- 
essarily very  slow.  Despite  the  difficulty  of  drawing  the  coach 
at  all  along  so  hard  a  road,  the  top  was  covered  with  passengers 
who  never  got  down,  even  at  the  steepest  ascents.  The  seats  on 
top  were  very  breezy  and  comfortable.  Well  up  out  of  the  dust 
their  occupants  could  enjoy  the  scenery  at  their  leisure,  or  critically 
discuss  the  merits  of  the  straining  team.  Naturally  such  places 


206  RICHES 

Those  who  live  on  their  incomes  are  living  on  the 
work  done  by  others.  They  are  economically 

were  in  great  demand  and  the  competition  for  them  was  keen, 
every  one  seeking  as  the  first  end  in  life  to  secure  a  seat  on  the 
coach  for  himself  and  to  leave  it  to  his  child  after  him.  By  the 
rule  of  the  coach  a  man  could  leave  his  seat  to  whom  he  wished, 
but  on  the  other  hand  there  were  many  accidents  by  which  it 
might  at  any  time  be  wholly  lost.  For  all  that  they  were  so  easy, 
the  seats  were  very  insecure,  and  at  every  sudden  jolt  of  the  coach 
persons  were  slipping  out  of  them  and  falling  to  the  ground,  where 
they  were  instantly  compelled  to  take  hold  of  the  rope  and  help  to 
drag  the  coach  on  which  they  had  before  ridden  so  pleasantly. 
It  was  naturally  regarded  as  a  terrible  misfortune  to  lose  one's 
seat,  and  the  apprehension  that  this  might  happen  to  them  or 
their  friends  was  a  constant  cloud  upon  the  happiness  of  those 
who  rode. 

"But  did  they  think  only  of  themselves?  you  ask.  Was  not  their 
very  luxury  rendered  intolerable  to  them  by  comparison  with  the 
lot  of  their  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  harness,  and  the  knowledge 
that  their  own  weight  added  to  their  toil!  Had  they  no  com- 
passion for  fellow  beings  from  whom  fortune  only  distinguished 
them?  Oh,  yes;  commiseration  was  frequently  expressed  by  those 
who  rode  for  those  who  had  to  pull  the  coach,  especially  when  the 
vehicle  came  to  a  bad  place  in  the  road,  as  it  was  constantly  doing, 
or  to  a  particularly  steep  hill.  At  such  times,  the  desperate  strain- 
ing of  the  team,  their  agonized  leaping  and  plunging  under  the 
pitiless  lashing  of  hunger,  the  many  who  fainted  at  the  rope  and 
were  trampled  in  the  mire,  made  a  very  distressing  spectacle,  which 
often  called  forth  highly  creditable  displays  of  feeling  on  the  top 
of  the  coach.  At  such  times  the  passengers  would  call  down 
encouragingly  to  the  toilers  of  the  rope,  exhorting  them  to  patience, 
and  holding  out  hopes  of  possible  compensation  in  another  world 
for  the  hardness  of  their  lot,  while  others  contributed  to  buy  salves 
and  liniments  for  the  crippled  and  injured.  It  was  agreed  that  it 
was  a  great  pity  that  the  coach  should  be  so  hard  to  pull,  and  there 
was  a  sense  of  general  relief  when  the  specially  bad  piece  of  road 
was  gotten  over.  This  relief  was  not,  indeed,  wholly  on  account 
of  the  team,  for  there  was  always  some  danger  at  these  bad  places 
of  a  general  overturn  in  which  all  would  lose  their  seats. 

"It  must  in  truth  be  admitted  that  the  main  effect  of  the  spectacle 
of  the  misery  of  the  toilers  at  the  rope  was  to  enhance  the  pas- 
sengers' sense  of  the  value  of  their  seats  upon  the  coach,  and  to 
cause  them  to  hold  on  to  them  more  desperately  than  before. 
If  the  passengers  could  only  have  felt  assured  that  neither  they  nor 
their  friends  would  ever  fall  from  the  top,  it  is  probable  that, 
beyond  contributing  to  the  funds  for  liniments  and  bandages, 
they  would  have  troubled  themselves  extremely  little  about  those 
who  dragged  the  coach." 


RICHES  207 

parasitic.    The  system  that  supports  them  penalizes 
the  worker  while  it  glorifies  the  owner. 

3.     Wealth  and  the  Wealthy 

An  attentive  listener  to  the  teachings  of  American 
life  might  easily  assume  that  the  rich  were  unques- 
tionably beneficiaries  of  their  riches.  Nothing  could 
be  farther  from  the  truth.  The  most  immediate 
resujt  of  riches  is  their  disastrous  effect  on  the  rich. 

Disastrous?  Must  "riches"  and  " disastrous" 
be  linked  together?  Examine  the  matter  carefully, 
and  the  conclusion  is  inevitable. 

Riches  saps  initiative,  undermines  self-respect  and 
prevents  the  rich  man  from  enjoying  human  rela- 
tionships. To  the  extent  that  riches  does  these 
things  it  is  disastrous  to  the  individual  who  is  rich. 

Riches  saps  initiative. 

All  normal  men  and  women  have  a  greater  or  less 
amount  of  creative  impulse — of  yearning  for  self- 
expression.  This  self-expression  is  the  outward 
manifestation  of  their  spiritual  selves.  When  they 
are  children,  they  plan,  build,  decorate  and  play. 
As  they  grow  older,  they  turn  to  more  permanent 
forms  of  activity — inventing,  painting,  organizing, 
directing,  planning  and  building  tools,  machines, 
pictures,  businesses,  cities  and  nations.  Shelly 
wrote  because  he  must  write;  Franklin  experimented 
scientifically  because  the  spirit  within  him  would 
not  be  gainsaid.  It  was  the  manners  of  Lincoln's 
soul  that  carried  him  to  the  fore.  These  things  are 
in  the  man. 


208  RICHES 

Human  faculties,  including  the  will,  grow  strong 
through  use.  Activity  is  the  law  of  life.  Truly  said 
Faust,  "In  the  beginning  was  the  deed." 

Poverty  starves  initiative.  Riches  surfeits  it. 
Both,  in  the  end,  destroy  it. 

The  rich  learn  to  depend  upon  others.  The  boy, 
born  into  a  rich  family,  who  has  someone  at  hand  to 
fetch  and  carry  for  him,  is  denied  the  education  that 
comes  through  doing.  Instead  of  being  stimulated 
to  press  forward  in  this  direction  or  that,  he  is  urged 
to  "let  James  do  it." 

Said  one  college  lad,  "Why  should  I  worry?  Why 
should  I  work?  Nothing  is  going  to  happen  to  me. 
Father  has  plenty  and  he  will  take  care  of  me." 
He  had  been  raised  in  luxury,  trained  to  depend 
upon  others  for  the  supplying  of  his  daily  wants, 
taught  to  accept  this  as  a  matter  of  course.  In  his 
expensive  preparatory  school  the  masters  had  given 
him  his  studies  in  the  form  of  carefully  sterilized, 
pre-digested  intellectual  pillets;  and  in  college  as  well 
as  in  life  he  expected  someone  to  look  out  for  him. 

This  does  not  always  happen.  But  just  as  the 
child  of  the  poor  is  likely  to  be  thrown  too  much  on 
his  own  resources,  so  the  child  of  the  rich  is  likely 
to  be  thrown  too  little  on  his  own  resources. 

The  attitude  of  the  rich  is  well  set  forth  in  one 
passage  from  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew. 
"For  they  say  and  do  not.  For  they  bind  heavy 
burdens  and  grievous  to  be  borne,  and  lay  them  on 
men's  shoulders,  but  they  themselves  will  not  move 


RICHES  209 

them  with  one  of  their  fingers."     They  wait  for 
others  to  do  it. 

Riches  saps  initiative  by  removing  the  immediate 
stimulus  to  activity.  The  "I  must"  of  the  man 
thrown  on  his  own  resources  becomes  the  " What's 
the  use?  "  of  the  man  who  need  never  worry  about  the 
morrow  or  the  morrow's  morrow. 

4.     Riches  and  Self-Respect 

Initiative  is  the  grandmother  of  self-respect. 
Achievement  is  born  of  initiative,  and  self-respect 
is  the  child  of  achievement. 

Here  are  two  boys.  One  has  acquired  the  habit  of 
failure,  the  other  the  habit  of  success.  The  boy 
who  has  learned  to  fail  abhors  himself.  He  is  worth- 
less !  He  feels  it  in  every  fiber  of  his  being.  The 
boy  who  has  learned  to  succeed  passes  from  triumph 
to  triumph.  There  is  nothing  too  difficult  for  him 
to  assay,  and  at  each  new  achievement  he  becomes 
more  capable  of  overcoming  the  next  obstacle. 
Success,  like  failure,  feeds  upon  itself. 

The  rich,  particularly  hi  the  second  generation, 
are  not  called  upon  to  achieve  anything.  They  are 
relieved  from  the  necessity  of  exertion.  Their 
power  of  initiative  atrophies.  They  never  learn 
success.  This  denial  of  achievement  undermines 
the  self-respect  of  the  rich  and  is  one  of  the  surest 
explanations  of  that  profound  dissatisfaction,  world- 
weariness  and  ennui  that  is  the  spiritual  scourge  of 
the  well-to-do. 

M 


210  RICHES 

Stevenson,  in  that  inspired  passage  at  the  end  of 
his  essay,  "Aes  Triplex,"  tells  what,  in  his  estimate, 
it  means  to  die  young.  The  triumphant  soul  has 
barely  finished  its  work.  "The  sound  of  the  mallet 
and  hammer  are  scarcely  quenched,"  when  the  spirit, 
hi  the  high  tide  of  its  being,  "shoots  into  the 
spiritual  land." 

The  hand  of  riches  is  as  palsied  as  the  hand  of 
old  age.  Gradually,  piece  by  piece,  it  wears  down 
the  foundations  of  self-respect  until  the  rich  man 
finds  himself  alone  with  his  riches. 

5.     The  Pauperizing  Power  of  Riches 

There  is  an  element  of  contradiction,  as  well  as 
of  unassailable  truth  in  the  phrase  "The  Pauperizing 
Power  of  Riches."  Yet,  equivocal  as  it  may  seem, 
riches  does  pauperize  the  rich. 

What  does  "pauperize"  mean? 

The  rich  are  most  solicitous  about  the  poor. 
Whatever  happens,  they  must  not  be  pauperized. 
There  is  a  danger  of  pauperization  in  all  forms  of 
philanthropy  and  charity.  School  lunches  pauperize 
the  children;  mothers'  pensions  pauperize  the 
families;  all  forms  of  assistance  given  to  individuals 
at  public  expense  pauperizes  the  individuals — that 
is,  it  renders  them  less  capable  of  self-support. 
Pauperize  means  "To  lead  one  person  to  depend  for 
support  on  another;  to  make  dependent." 

Riches  pauperizes. 

The  children  of  rich  people,  and  to  a  less  extent 


RICHES  211 

the  rich  people  themselves,  learn  to  depend  on  others 
for  their  support.  Servants  wait  on  them;  the 
world  of  productive  industry  supplies  them  with 
the  things  that  they  use.  Riches  tends  to  make  the 
rich  incapable  of  self-support.  There  are  in  riches 
the  worst  features  of  pauperization  against  which 
the  rich  are  constantly  seeking  to  guard  the  poor. 
The  burden  of  riches  rests  heavily  upon  individual 
initiative  and  self-respect.  Riches  leads  to  depen- 
dence— inability  for  self -support.  Riches  pauperizes. 

6.     The  Isolation  of  Riches 

Riches  isolates  the  rich  as  completely  as  though 
they  were  set  upon  an  island  of  gold  in  the  midst  of  a 
boundless  ocean.  The  rich  may  have  their  friends 
among  the  rich,  but  they  cannot  reach  the  heart 
of  humanity. 

Philanthropy  is  the  effort  of  the  rich  to  establish 
human  relations  with  the  rest  of  mankind.  As 
such,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  arid  failure  of  the 
century. 

A  rich  woman  who  owned  an  estate  of  many 
acres  near  a  large  city  decided  to  set  up  some  tents 
among  her  beautiful  shade  trees  and  invite  shop 
girls  to  come  there  and  stay  during  the  summer. 
She  had  a  child-like  faith  that  while  she  was  away 
on  her  summer  travels  they  would  come  here  and 
enjoy  themselves.  When  she  found  that  they 
would  not  come,  she  was  displeased — affronted. 
They  were,  she  said,  "  ungrateful." 


212  RICHES 

The  rich  men  of  America  in  the  present  century 
are  repeating  the  elaborate  philanthropies  carried 
on  in  Rome  by  the  rich  men  of  the  Augustan  age. 
They  built  schools,  baths,  libraries,  fountains  and 
public  buildings  in  the  hope  that  they  could  by 
these  means  atone  for  their  riches.  Like  the  phi- 
lanthropists of  the  twentieth  century,  they  failed. 

The  failure  of  philanthropy  is  inherent  in  the 
nature  of  such  benefactions.  Assume  that  the 
philanthropist  is  giving  from  the  purest  motives  of 
altruism,  the  fact  that  he  gives  wealth  and  that 
another  receives  it  throws  between  the  two  an 
impassable  gulf.  Philanthropist  and  beneficiary 
cannot  be  friends.  Philanthropy  annihilates  friend- 
ship. Go  one  step  farther,  and  have  this  phi- 
lanthropy handled  professionally  by  a  society  whose 
purpose  is  organized  benevolence,  and  the  phi- 
lanthropy becomes  grotesque. 

"He  gives  nothing  but  worthless  gold  who  gives 
from  a  sense  of  duty,"  writes  Lowell.  The  sentence 
might  be  paraphrased  to  read,  "He  gives  nothing 
but  worthless  gold  who  gives  professionally."  The 
$100  wrung  from  the  irascible  philanthropist  by  the 
smooth-spoken  agent  of  the  charity  society  reeks  with 
the  contempt  that  the  giver  feels  for  his  fellow  men 
in  general  and  the  financial  secretary  of  the  charity 
society  hi  particular.  It  is  a  means  of  disestablish- 
ing human  relations.  Instead  of  being  a  blessing, 
it  is  a  curse. 

"All  gifts,"  you  insist,  "are  not  given  on  that 


RICHES  j  213 

basis."  True  enough,  but  those  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  running  of  private  philanthropic  societies, 
and  who  know  the  lengths  to  which  these  organiza- 
tions go  to  raise  funds,  are  gravely  suspicious  that  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  dollars  that  make  such 
an  admirable  showing  after  the  names  of  the  con- 
tributors published  hi  the  annual  report  would 
never  have  appeared  in  print  but  for  the  astuteness 
and  persistence  of  men  and  women  who  are  paid  for 
then*  proficiency  in  the  charitable  art  of  wheedling. 

Personal  relationships  vanish  when  the  philan- 
thropist signs  the  check  that  passes  on  his  "worth- 
less gold."  Organized  philanthropy  and  personal 
relationship  are  antithetical  terms.  Charity  is 
synonymous  with  love,  not  checks!  The  champion 
of  organized  philanthropy  points  in  vain  to  his  list 
of  volunteer  workers.  The  givers  who  have  sought 
to  be  philanthropic  by  giving  money  are  in  the  same 
trap  of  impossibilities. 

Philanthropy  may  be  defended  as  conscience 
balm  or  as  social  fire  insurance.  The  man  who  has 
stolen  a  hundred-thousand-dollar  franchise  may 
dedicate  a  ten-thousand-dollar  stained  glass  window 
and  "call  it  square."  The  astute  millionaire  may 
see  hi  philanthropy  a  means  of  perpetuating  a  social 
system  which,  without  philanthropy,  would  speedily 
become  intolerable.  Even  hi  these  cases,  and  they 
are  probably  not  so  numerous  as  some  radical 
thinkers  believe,  there  is  no  personal  relation  estab- 
lished between  the  giver  and  the  receiver  of  the  gift. 


214  RICHES 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  chapter  on  "Indus- 
trial Leadership"  was  devoted  to  the  proposition 
that  the  leader  must  be  the  server,  since  great 
leadership  involved  great  service.  The  only  true 
philanthropist  is  the  man  who  gives  himself,  and 
the  possession  of  riches  seems  to  erect  a  sharp  barrier 
between  the  rich  man  and  the  world. 

Emerson,  in  his  essay  on  "Manners,"  states  the 
matter  very  clearly.  "Without  the  rich  heart, 
wealth  is  an  ugly  beggar."  He  might  have  said 
"ugly  pauper"  and  been  nearer  to  the  truth.  "The 
only  gift,"  he  writes,  in  "Gifts,"  "is  a  portion  of 
thyself."  The  proposition  is  so  clearly  defined  and 
so  well  established  that  it  needs  no  elaboration. 

Lowell  states  the  case  in  a  manner  even  more 
sweeping.  "Who  gives  himself  with  his  gold 
feeds  three — himself,  his  hungering  neighbor  and 
Me."  The  reverse  holds  equally  true — that  the  man 
who  does  not  give  himself  feeds  no  one. 

There  is  no  word  here  about  the  great  foundations 
and  bequests,  because,  administered  by  high-paid 
directors  and  by  boards  of  trustees,  they  do  not  even 
profess  to  represent  "giving"  hi  the  personal  sense 
of  that  word. 

The  rich  man,  because  he  is  rich,  cannot  give 
himself.  It  is  this  fact  that  led  to  the  admonition 
which  Jesus  gave  the  rich  young  man  who  had  kept 
all  of  the  commandments:  "Go,  sell  all  you  have; 
come  and  follow  me."  Until  he  had  divested  him- 
self of  the  unpenetrable  armor  which  the  possession 


RICHES  215 

of  riches  threw  about  him,  he  was  of  no  value  as  a 
personal  worker. 

7.    Spending  as  Philanthropy 

"True  enough,"  admit  the  rich,  "we  do  not  give 
generously.  Even  the  largest  gifts  are,  as  a  rule, 
paltry  when  one  considers  the  amount  the  giver  has 
left.  At  the  same  tune,  we  spend  our  money 
generously,  circulate  it  and  thus  make  people 
prosperous." 

_  That  "spending"  argument  is  very  old  and  some- 
what overworked.  Yet  it  is  astonishing  to  find  how 
many  people  believe  it  implicitly.  To  it?  there  are 
several  answers. 

First,  if  it  were  true  that  spending  makes  pros- 
perity, the  cause  of  progress  would  be  served  best 
by  having  one  person  do  all  the  spending  for  the 
community.  That  proposition  even  the  most 
ardent  advocate  of  the  spending  argument  would 
hardly  accept  unless  he  was  sure  to  be  designated 
the  spender. 

Second,  in  proportion  to  their  income,  the  poor 
spend  more  than  the  rich.  Therefore,  if  spending 
were  the  objective  desired,  the  most  successful 
way  to  have  money  spent  would  be  to  give  it  to  the 
poor. 

Third,  the  assumption  that  spending  rather  than 
saving  makes  for  prosperity,  is  based  on  an  idea 
that  is  not  necessarily  correct.  In  a  new  country, 
the  person  who  saves  is  more  important  than  the 


216  RICHES 

person  who  spends,  because  it  is  from  the  savings 
of  the  careful  individual  that  the  capital  for  new 
industries  is  secured. 

Fourth,  the  person  who  spends  does  not  do  so 
primarily  because  he  wishes  to  be  philanthropic.2 
He  spends  because  he  wishes  to  have  the  things  that 
he  buys.  The  rich  man's  food,  clothing  and  house 
decoration  are  bought  with  an  eye  to  the  rich  man's 
taste — not  to  the  poor  man's  welfare. 

Fifth,  when  a  rich  man  uses  up  food  and  clothing 
to  supply  himself  with  comforts  and  luxuries,  he 
automatically  denies  the  rest  of  the  community 
those  same  things.  There  is  a  loaf  of  bread  for 
supper.  If  father  eats  two-thirds  of  the  loaf,  there 
is  only  one-third  left  for  mother  and  the  children. 
At  any  given  time  there  is  only  a  certain 'amount  of 
wealth  in  the  community.  If  one  man  uses  it, 
other  people  are  automatically  deprived  of  it  unless 
there  is  more  than  enough  to  go  round.3 

2  The  real  irony  of  the  position  taken  by  the  man  who  justifies 
spending  on  the  ground  that  he  thus  helps  other  people  is  well  set 
forth  in  some  lines  credited  to  Ernest  Bilton : 

"Now  Dives  daily  feasted  and  was  gorgeously  arrayed, 
Not  at  all  because  he  liked  it  but  because  'twas  good  for  trade. 
That  the  people  might  have  calico,  he  clothed  himself  in  silk, 
And  surfeited  himself  on  cream  that  they  might  get  the  milk; 
He  fed  five  hundred  servants  that  the  poor  might  not  lack  bread, 
And  had  his  vessels  made  of  gold  that  they  might  get  more  lead; 
And  e'en  to  show  his  sympathy  with  the  deserving  poor 
He  did  no  useful  work  himself  that  they  might  do  the  more. 
You'll  think  this  very,  very  strange,  but  then  of  course,  you  know, 
'Twas  in  a  far-off  country,  and  a  long  while  ago." 

3  This  point  is  well  illustrated  by  the  comment  that  Victor  Hugo 
puts  in  the  mouth  of  the  country  Bishop,  who  was  visiting  his 
richer  brethren  in  Paris: 

"What  fine  clocks!     What  splendid  carpets!    What  magnificent 


RICHES  217 

The  whole  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  rich 
spender  to  the  community  is  covered,  as  perhaps 
nowhere  else  in  literature,  by  a  passage  from  Ruskin's 
"Unto  This  Last:" 

"If  you  are  a  young  lady,  and  employ  a  certain 
number  of  sempstresses  for  a  given  tune,  in  making 
a  given  number  of  simple  and  serviceable  dresses, 
suppose,  seven;  of  which  you  can  wear  one  yourself 
for  half  the  whiter,  and  give  six  away  to  poor  girls 
who  have  none,  you  are  spending  your  money 
unselfishly.  But  if  you  employ  the  same  number  of 
sempstresses  for  the  same  number  of  days,  in 
making  four,  or  five,  or  six  beautiful  flounces  for  your 
own  ball-dress — flounces  which  will  clothe  no  one 
but  yourself,  and  which  you  will  yourself  be  unable 
to  wear  at  more  than  one  ball — you  are  employing 
your  money  selfishly.  ...  I  don't  say  you  are 
never  to  do  so;  I  don't  say  you  ought  not  sometimes 
to  think  of  yourselves  only,  and  to  make  your- 
selves as  pretty  as  you  can;  only  do  not  confuse 
coquettishness  with  benevolence,  nor  cheat  your- 
selves into  thinking  that  all  the  finery  you  can  wear 
is  so  much  put  into  the  hungry  mouths  of  those 
beneath  you;  it  is  not  so;  ...  those  fine  dresses 
do  not  mean  that  so  much  has  been  put  into  their 


Uveries!  You  must  find  all  that  very  troublesome!  -'(Oh,  I  should 
not  like  to  have  all  such  superfluities  to  yell  incessantly  in  my  ears; 
there  are  people  who  are  hungry;  there  are  people  who  are  cold; 
there  are  poor,  there  are  poor." 

Or,  from  St.  Augustine: 

"The  superfluities  of  the  rich  are  the  necessaries  of  the  poor. 
They  who  possess  superfluities  possess  the  goods  of  others." 


218  RICHES 

mouths,  but  that  so  much  has  been  taken  out  of 
their  mouths.  The  real  politico-economical  signifi- 
cance of  every  one  of  those  beautiful  toilettes  is 
just  this:  that  you  have  had  a  certain  number  of 
people  put  for  a  certain  number  of  days  wholly  under 
your  authority  by  the  sternest  of  slave-masters, 
hunger  and  cold,  and  have  said  to  them,  'I  will 
feed  you,  indeed,  and  clothe  you,  and  give  you  fuel 
for  so  many  days,  but  during  those  days  you  shall 
work  for  me  only.  Your  little  brothers  need  clothes, 
but  you  shall  make  none  for  them;  your  sick  friend 
needs  clothes,  but  you  shall  make  none  for  her;  you 
yourself  will  soon  need  another  and  a  warmer  dress, 
but  you  shall  make  none  for  yourself.  You  shall 
make  nothing  but  lace  and  roses  for  me;  for  this 
fortnight  to  come,  you  shall  work  at  the  patterns 
and  petals,  and  then  I  will  crush  and  consume  them 
away  in  an  hour.'  You  will  perhaps  answer:  'It 
may  not  be  particularly  benevolent  to  do  this,  and 
we  won't  call  it  so;  but  at  any  rate  we  do  no  wrong 
in  taking  then1  labor  when  we  pay  them  their  wages. 
If  we  pay  for  their  work  we  have  a  right  to  it.'  No — 
a  thousand  tunes  no.  The  labor  which  you  have 
paid  for  does  indeed  become,  by  the  act  of  purchase, 
your  own  labor;  you  have  bought  the  hands  and 
the  tune  of  those  workers;  they  are,  by  right  and 
justice,  your  own  hands,  your  own  time.  But  have 
you  a  right  to  spend  your  own  tune,  to  work  with 
your  own  hands,  only  for  your  own  advantage? — 
much  more,  when,  by  purchase,  you  have  invested 


RICHES  219 

your  own  person  with  the  strength  of  others,  and 
added  to  your  own  life  a  part  of  the  life  of  others? 
.  .  .  as  long  as  there  are  cold  and  nakedness  in  the 
land  around  you,  so  long  there  can  be  no  question  at 
all  but  that  splendor  of  dress  is  a  crime.  In  due 
time,  when  we  have  nothing  better  to  set  people  to 
work  at,  it  may  be  right  to  let  them  make  lace  and 
cut  jewels;  but  so  long  as  there  are  any  who  have 
no  blankets  for  their  beds  and  no  rags  for  their 
bodies,  so  long  it  is  blanket-making  and  tailoring  we 
must  set  people  to  work  at — not  lace." 

8.     We  Cannot  Serve  Mammon 

The  declaration,  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon,"  offers  no  real  alternative.  We  cannot 
serve  Mammon. 

The  thinkers  of  the  world  for  ages  have  understood 
this,  but  in  regard  to  it  the  world  is  still  in  darkness. 
Here,  in  the  United  States,  tens  of  thousands  are 
busying  themselves  in  Mammon's  service,  despite 
the  very  obvious  fact,  noted  even  by  Emerson,  that 
the  rich,  who  are  trying  to  be  rich,  "arrive  with 
pains  and  sweat  and  fury  nowhere."4  Solomon, 
though  he  was  rich,  said,  "Give  me  neither  poverty 
nor  riches."  A  long  line  of  Greek  and  Roman 
philosophers  made  the  same  point.  The  followers 
of  the  early  Christian  Church  went  to  the  extreme 
of  demanding  poverty  as  a  pre-requisite  to  salvation. 

The  revolt  against  riches  is  normal  if  the  argument 

4  Essay  on  "Nature.", 


220  RICHES 

presented  is  sound.  If  riches  saps  initiative,  under- 
mines self-respect  and  prevents  the  rich  man  from 
establishing  human  relationships,  even  the  rich 
should,  with  Timon  of  Athens,  cast  their  riches 
aside.  When  it  appears,  further,  that  the  rich  are 
taking  the  wealth  of  the  community  for  their  own 
selfish  enjoyments,  while  the  poor  must  go  without; 
and  that  riches,  a  relative  term  signifying  the 
opposite  of  poverty,  involves  the  maintenance  of 
the  maximum  inequality  in  favor  of  those  who  are 
rich,  society  too  must  reject  riches.  Riches,  with  its 
running  mate  poverty,  becomes  the  object  of  uni- 
versal condemnation. 

Riches  leads  those  who  are  rich  toward  physical 
and  spiritual  death.  Likewise  it  leads  the  com- 
munity toward  the  social  death  that  is  a  necessary 
product  of  parasitism. 

There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  the  writings  of 
James  in  which  he  cries  to  the  rich,  "Go  to  now, 
ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries  that 
shall  come  upon  you.  Your  riches  are  corrupted 
and  your  garments  are  moth-eaten.  Your  gold 
and  silver  is  cankered;  and  the  rust  of  them  shall 
be  a  witness  against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh 
as  it  were  fire."  Here  is  the  warning  that  many  of 
the  later  writers  have  put  in  stronger  terms,  but 
which  is  nowhere  more  strikingly  stated.  The 
destruction  of  the  rich  is  their  riches  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty. 

The  camel  shall  go  through  the  needle's  eye  more 


RICHES  221 

easily  than  a  rich  man  shall  enter  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  His  riches  cumber  his  life.  The  rich 
young  man  who  had  kept  all  of  the  commandments, 
but  who  was  told  to  go  sell  all  that  he  had  and  give 
it  to  the  poor,  "when  he  heard  this,  was  very  sorrow- 
ful; for  he  had  great  possessions."  He  was  young, 
but  already  the  riches  had  a  firm  grip  on  his  life. 

The  same  destructive  effect  of  riches  may  be 
observed  in  a  social  group.  Thus  Paul  writes  to  the 
Church  of  the  Laodiceans:  "Because  thou  sayest, 
I  am  rich,  and  increased  with  goods,  and  have  need 
of  nothing;  and  knowest  not  that  thou  art  wretched, 
and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked." 
The  riches  of  this  group  of  people  obstructed  their 
vision  of  truth  in  exactly  the  same  manner  that  the 
riches  of  the  virtuous  young  man  obstructed  his 
vision. 

The  objective  point  of  social  organization  is  happy 
and  noble  men  and  women.  To  this  end,  poverty 
and  riches  alike  fail.  Neither  happiness  nor  nobility 
is  inherent,  either  in  poverty  or  in  riches.  "It  is 
well,"  said  Saint  Augustine,  "that  thou  givest 
bread  to  the  hungry,  but  better  were  it  that  none 
hungered  and  that  thou  hadst  none  to  give." 
Poverty  must  give  place  to  justice  and  riches  must 
be  supplanted  by  equal  opportunity.  Only  thus 
can  the  greatest  good  be  accomplished  for  that 
greatest  number  upon  which  the  community  depends 
for  its  continued  success  and  from  which  alone 
the  community  must  secure  happiness  and  nobility. 


222  RICHES 

9.     What  is  Riches? 

Some  will  insist,  and  very  promptly,  that  the 
place  for  the  definition  of  riches  was  at  the  outset 
of  the  discussion.  It  was  deferred  and  set  at  this 
point  in  order  that  the  reader  might  have,  as  a  back- 
ground for  definition,  the  considerations  regarding 
riches  that  have  been  stated.  The  tune  has  now 
come  to  define  riches. 

Riches  is  a  purely  relative  term.  Not  only  is  it 
true  that  the  heaven  of  the  rich  is  built  upon  the 
hell  of  the  poor,  but  unless  there  were  a  hell  of 
poverty  there  could  be  no  heaven  of  riches. 

The  terms  "rich"  and  "poor"  are  opposites  in  the 
same  sense  that  the  terms  "north"  and  "south" 
are  opposites.  Were  the  south  eliminated,  there 
could  be  no  north.  The  existence  of  the  one  pre- 
supposes the  presence  of  the  other.  The  Italian 
who  comes  to  the  United  States,  lives  in  squalor, 
saves  a  thousand  dollars  and  goes  back  to  his  little 
Italian  village,  is  rich  there.  The  "local  banker" 
in  the  Illinois  country  village — the  most  prosperous, 
substantial  citizen  in  his  town — takes  a  trip  to 
Chicago  or  New  York,  where  he  finds  himself 
inexpressibly  poor.  The  "richness"  of  riches  con- 
sists, not  at  all  in  the  amount  of  them,  but  in  the 
contrast  between  the  amount  of  wealth  in  the 
possession  of  the  poor  part  of  the  community.  An 
Italian  peasant  is  far  richer  in  his  native  village  on  a 
thousand  dollars  than  is  a  provincial  banker  in  New 
York  on  a  million,  Ruskin  states  the  matter  thus: 


RICHES  223 

"Men  nearly  always  speak  and  write  as  if  riches  were 
absolute,  and  it  were  possible,  by  following  certain 
scientific  precepts,  for  everybody  to  be  rich.  .  .  . 
The  force  of  the  guinea  you  have  in  your  pocket 
depends  wholly  on  the  default  of  a  guinea  in  your 
neighbor's  pocket.  If  he  did  not  want  it,  it  would 
be  of  no  use  to  you ;  the  degree  of  power  it  possesses 
depends  accurately  upon  the  need  or  desire  he  has 
for  it,  and  the  art  of  making  yourself  rich  ...  is 
therefore  equally  and  necessarily  the  art  of  keeping 
your  neighbor  poor." 

The  poorer  the  neighbor,  the  more  powerful  is  the 
rich  man.  The  contrast  between  the  poverty  of  the 
poor  and  the  riches  is  the  measure  of  the  power  that 
the  rich  can  exercise  over  the  poor.  The  greater 
the  contrast,  the  greater  the  power  of  the  rich. 

Were  riches  absolute,  people  might  be  both  rich 
and  happy.  Thus,  it  every  man  who  had  a  million 
were  rich,  and  if  no  one,  by  any  possibility,  could 
get  more  than  a  million,  then  the  rich  could  cease  to 
strive  when  he  reached  the  million  mark,  and  be  a 
satisfied  man.  Riches  are  not  absolute,  however. 
The  man  with  a  million  is  not  rich  so  long  as  there 
is  a  man  with  a  hundred  million  living  across  the 
street.  Furthermore,  even  if  the  man  with  a 
million  is  the  richest  man  hi  the  community,  there  is 
the  constantly  impending  probability  that  someone 
else  may  get  two  millions,  and  the  possessor  of  one 
million  strives  as  ardently  as  ever  to  keep  ahead  in 
the  riches  game. 


224  RICHES 

Furthermore,  since  riches  is  as  important  for  its 
power  over  the  poor  as  it  is  for  its  supremacy  among 
the  rich,  the  rich  man  strives  for  more  riches  in  order 
that  he  may  have  more  power. 

The  phrase  " drunk  with  power"  describes  accu- 
rately the  state  of  the  man  who  is  forging  ahead  in 
the  wealth-game.  Riches  is  a  social  stimulant, 
more  exhilarating  then  champagne.  It  is  more 
deadly,  too,  because  it  gets  a  stronger  grip  on  its 
victims  and  holds  them  more  surely.  The  love  of 
riches  is  the  most  consuming  passion  hi  the  world. 
It  grips  all  alike — young  and  old;  weak  and  strong. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  Teacher  exclaims, 
"How  hard  it  is  for  them  that  trust  in  riches  to  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  God!"  The  riches  block  their 
path  and  the  more  they  have  the  greater  obstacle 
do  they  become.  Instead  of  mounting  to  a  heaven 
of  happiness  and  satisfaction  on  the  mountain  of  his 
riches,  the  rich  man  is  crushed  by  them  into  a  hell 
of  taunting  oblivions  from  which  even  the  gilded 
monuments  that  he  erects  cannot  save  him. 

10.     The  Maximum  Inequality 

Unless  riches  carry  with  them  power  over  men, 
they  are  meaningless.  No  rich  man  would  hold 
title  to  mines,  steamship  lines  or  metropolitan  real 
estate  unless  they  gave  him  this  power. 

A  man  owns  a  great  estate  on  which  there  is 
a  splendid  mansion,  fine  stables,  houses,  cattle, 
orchards,  fertile  fields.  One  day  a  pestilence  kills 


RICHES  225 

off  the  men  and  women  who  have  been  working  on 
the  estate.  There  are  no  more  servants  to  be  had, 
and  the  owner  decides  to  keep  up  the  property 
himself.  What  does  he  discover?  That  if  he  is  a 
good  workman,  well  equipped  with  up-to-date 
tools,  his  own  efforts  will  maintain  from  one  to  five 
acres  of  land  hi  a  state  of  high  cultivation,  while  the 
mansion,  the  stables  and  the  rolling  fields  grow  up 
to  briers  and  thickets,  and  in  a  decade  become  a 
wilderness.  The  estate  that  one  man  can  work 
is  small  indeed.  Only  when  he  can  persuade  others 
to  accept  a  part  of  his  riches  in  return  for  their 
services  can  he  expect  to  be  rich. 

The  operation  of  each  pice  of  industrial  property 
depends  upon  the  same  principle.  Of  what  use  are 
railroads,  steel  mills,  sugar  refineries  and  silver 
mines  unless  someone  can  be  found  who  is  willing  to 
pay  a  bonus  (rent  or  interest)  for  the  privilege  of 
working  there? 

Dives  has  assumed,  absurdly  enough,  that  he  was 
conferring  a  favor  when  he  allowed  another  to  set 
his  table.  Unless  there  were  some  other  than 
Lazarus  to  accept  his  pay  and  set  his  table,  he 
would  have  no  feast. 

Note  the  conclusion  to  which  this  argument 
leads:  "What  is  really  desired,  under  the  name  of 
riches,  is  essentially  power  over  men;  .  .  .  And  this 
power  of  wealth,  of  course,  is  greater  or  less  in 
direct  proportion  to  the  poverty  of  the  men  over 
whom  it  is  exercised,  and  in  inverse  proportion  to 

16 


226  RICHES 

the  number  of  persons  who  are  as  rich  as  ourselves, 
and  who  are  ready  to  give  the  same  price  for  an 
article  of  which  the  supply  is  limited.  ...  So 
that,  as  above  stated,  the  art  of  becoming  'rich,' 
in  the  common  sense,  is  not  absolutely  nor  finally 
the  art  of  accumulating  much  money  for  ourselves, 
but  also  of  contriving  that  our  neighbors  shall  have 
less.  In  accurate  terms,  it  is  "the  art  of  establishing 
the  maximum  inequality  in  our  own  favor."5 

The  art  of  becoming  rich  is  "the  art  of  estab- 
lishing the  maximum  inequality  in  our  favor." 
Study  that  sentence  carefully.  Compare  it  with 
the  ethical  codes  commonly  accepted  by  the  Chris- 
tian world,  or  the  Pagan  either,  for  that  matter, 
and  note  the  monstrous  chasm  that  yawns  between 
"the  maximum  inequality  in  our  favor,"  and  "do 
unto  others  as  you  would  that  they  should  do  to 
you." 

Riches  are  of  value  only  when  they  will  com- 
mand the  tune  and  energy  of  another.  The  rich 
are  rich  because  others  are  poor  and  in  proportion  as 
others  are  poor;  the  art  of  getting  rich  is  the  art  of 
establishing  the  maximum  inequality  in  our  favor. 
This  is  the  heaven  of  the  rich  that  has  been  built 
on  the  hell  of  the  poor.  Here  endeth  the  journey 
through  Paradise.  Thinking  back  over  it  all,  do 
you  wonder  that  Shaw  writes  of  "That  indispensable 
revolt  against  poverty  that  must  also  be  a  revolt 
against  riches?"6 

1  "Unto  This  Last,"  John  Ruakin. 
•  "Major  Barbara,"  Introduction. 


CHAPTER  VI 
INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

1.     The  Impatience  for  Constructive  Work 

GO  where  you  will;  discuss  what  vital  subject 
you  please,  and  inevitably  a  question  is  asked. 
''Well,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?"  or  more 
concretely,  "Well,  what  can  I  do  about  it?"  The 
world  is  tired  of  destructive  thought;  it  is  demanding 
a  reamrmation  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  life. 

Truly  did  Carlyle  anticipate  the  spirit  of  the 
present  day  in  his  utterance,  "What!  thou  hast  no 
faculty  hi  that  kind?  only  a  torch  for  burning,  no 
hammer  for  building?  Take  our  thanks,  then,  and 
.  .  .  thyself  away."1  The  world  is  turning  eagerly 
to  him  who  has  the  hammer  for  building,  asking 
where  he  keeps  it,  how  he  uses  it,  what  it  is  made  of, 
how  it  works,  whether  others  could  use  one  like  it, 
and  where  duplicates  are  to  be  found.  All  of  these 
queries  must  be  answered,  and,  most  important  of 
all,  they  must  be  answered  quickly,  definitely  and  in 
certain  terms. 

Nor  are  people  satisfied  that  the  tool  of  construc- 
tion should  be  a  hammer.  In  an  age  of  progress, 
why  waste  time  over  hammers?  Why  not  have  an 

1  "Sartor  Resartus,"  Ch.  9. 

(227) 


228  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

Aladdin's  lamp  or  some  other  touchstone  of  creation 
that  will  erect  the  palace  of  our  dreams  while  we 
sleep? 

Further,  this  constructive  power  must  be  a 
"remedy"  that  is  guaranteed  to  cure  the  social 
ills.  Not  one  disease  must  it  master,  but  all  diseases. 
It  must  be  a  panacea  that  will  work  equally  well  in 
the  case  of  each  specific  social  ailment. 

This  cure-all — the  age-sought  spring  of  perpetual 
social  youth — is  looked  for  as  eagerly  today  as  men 
ever  sought  its  prototype  in  the  days  of  De  Soto. 
People,  not  a  few,  insist  that  they  have  found  it, 
that  they  have  it,  and  that  if  the  world  will  but 
listen  to  their  voices,  it  will  be  saved. 

At  the  same  time,  oddly  enough,  by  a  complete 
contradiction,  these  same  people  insist  upon  an 
evolutionary  as  opposed  to  a  revolutionary  method 
of  getting  results.  Things  must  not  be  thrown 
down  too  hard.  Removing  and  rebuilding  must 
be  as  simultaneous  as  they  are  in  the  tissues  of  the 
human  body. 

2.     The  Ideals  of  Democracy 

One  dramatic  four-act  answer  may  be  made  to 
all  of  these  demands: 

1.  The   world  of  human  affairs   always   moves 

onward;   and  sometimes  upward. 

2.  The   onward   movement   is   inevitable.      The 

upward  movement  depends  upon  the  will  of 
man. 


DESTITUTION    AND    LUXURY 

An  aged  workman,  stricken  with  paralysis  after  years  of  toil,  bend- 
ing oler  a  cold  stove  in  a  filthy  room  ;  hungry,  helpless  and  friend- 
ess  is  shown  above  in  a  photograph  taken  by  Charles  F.  Wellcr. 
In  the  living-room  of  a  splendid  house  shown  below,  the  wealthy 
man  has  every  comfort  and  luxury.  Nor  is  this  the  on  y  room  of 
which  he  has  the  use.  (Photo  from  "House  &  Garden.  ) 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  229 

3.  Men,  in  building  upward,  work  toward  their 

ideals. 

4.  Everywhere,  the  world  over,  those  who  repre- 

sent a  progressive  democracy  are  working 
toward  ideals  that  can  be  reduced  to  the 
same  general  terms. 

The  ideas  and  ideals  that  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
the  democratic  thought  of  the  United  States  are 
common  to  the  democratic  thinkers  of  Canada, 
Australia,  Switzerland,  France  and  England.  They 
have  been  popularized  by  certain  catch  phrases  that 
carry  them  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  citizenship. 

The  most  commonly  accepted  of  the  ideals  upon 
which  American  democracy  was  built  is  summed  up 
in  the  phrase,  "The  equal  right  of  all  people  to  life, 
liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Human 
beings  differ  physically  and  intellectually.  No  one 
hopes  or  even  pretends  that  people  can  be  made 
equal.  It  is  proposed  to  equalize  opportunity.  The 
men  and  women  who  founded  the  American  Colonies 
fled  from  a  civilization  in  which  there  were  hereditary 
inequalities  of  opportunity.  In  their  new  homes, 
they  dedicated  themselves  to  the  task  of  giving  equal 
opportunity  to  all  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men. 
There  was  to  be  no  special  privilege.  All  were  to 
be  started  fair  in  the  race  of  life. 

The  ideal  of  equal  opportunity  is  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  dreams  that  ever  came  into  the  human 
consciousness.  It  makes  room  for  the  individual 
soul  at  the  same  time  that  it  calls  to  the  front  the 
men  who  are  best  fitted  to  do  the  tasks  of  the  world. 


230  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

A  second  ideal  of  the  early  American  democracy 
was  aptly  summed  up  in  the  phrase,  "He  that  will 
not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat."  Citizens  of  a 
democracy  must  assume  the  responsibilities  of 
citizenship  under  pain  of  missing  its  benefits. 

Conversely,  the  government  hi  a  democracy  must 
serve  the  citizenship.  In  its  early  expression,  this 
thought  takes  the  form,  "  Taxation  without  repre- 
sentation is  tyranny."  Those  who  pay  the  piper 
should  call  the  tune.  Later  the  expression  appears 
as  "A  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people," — a  people's  government.  A 
people's  government  can  know  only  one  duty — the 
service  of  those  who  support  it. 

Then,  in  the  fourth  place,  the  democracy  will 
"put  the  man  above  the  dollar,"  because,  in  a 
democracy,  the  important  values  are  the  human 
values;  the  great  rights  are  the  human  rights. 
Therefore,  the  rights  of  men  and  women  will  come 
before  the  rights  of  property. 

Here  are  four  of  the  basic  democratic  concepts — 
equal  opportunity,  civic  obligation,  popular  govern- 
ment and  human  rights.  They  were  sound 
as  tests  of  political  democracy.  Perhaps  they 
may  be  equally  useful  hi  testing  the  democracy  of 
industry. 

3.    Democratic  Ideals  and  the  Industrial  Regime 

These  ideals  of  democracy  were  applied  to  the 
political  affairs  of  the  community.  Now  that  a 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY          231 

great  new  force  has  arisen,  the  same  ideals  of 
democracy  must  be  applied  to  the  Industrial  Regime, 
or  else  other  ideals  must  be  formulated  that  are 
more  adequate  to  express  the  relation  between  the 
people  and  the  industrial  institutions  of  which  the 
people  are  the  living  force. 

Within  a  century  the  political  functions  of  society 
have  been  pushed  into  the  background,  and  in  their 
places  are  the  industrial  forces,  easily  dominating, 
in  their  importance,  every  other  activity  of  the 
community.  Large  scale  industry  has  come  to  stay. 
It  is  an  integral  part  of  social  life.  It  must  be  made 
a  servant  of  man.  How  shall  this  admittedly  desk- 
able  end  be  brought  about?  How  but  by  the  very 
process  that  in  past  years  forced  political  govern- 
ment to  accept  community  service  as  its  declared 
standard.  The  Industrial  Regime  drives  a  hard 
pace;  it  pays  indecently  low  wages;  it  racks  its 
leaders  as  it  does  the  subordinates;  it  continues 
poverty  in  the  presence  of  plenty;  it  permits  piled 
up  riches  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  The  Industrial 
Regime  evidently  has  not  brought  "the  greatest  good 
to  the  greatest  number."  Low  wages,  over-work, 
distorted  individuality,  poverty  and  riches  have  no 
place  in  a  democracy. 

The  Industrial  Regime  seems  on  its  face  to  be 
undemocratic  or  even  anti-democratic.  The 
democracy  of  it  may  be  tested  by  examining 
it  hi  terms  of  the  generally  accepted  ideals  of 
democracy. 


232  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

4.    Equality  of  Opportunity 

Equality  of  opportunity  is  the  germ  thought  of 
democracy.  There  must  be  none  who  are  specially 
privileged.  There  is  no  class  that  is  entitled  to  the 
first-fruits.  The  ages  have  experimented  with  every 
form  of  hereditary  special  privilege,  and  American 
society,  in  its  very  inception,  was  a  reaction  against 
them.  The  world  is  weary  of  economic  and  social 
favoritism — outgrown  garments  that  belong  among 
the  other  relics  of  pseudo-barbarism. 

The  Industrial  Regime,  the  dominating  force  in 
modern  life,  must  stand  trial  on  all  of  the  issues  of 
democracy,  but,  most  important  of  all,  it  must  pro- 
vide equal  opportunity  for  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  record  of  the  Industrial  Regime  to  date  is 
like  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  apostle  of  democracy. 
Although  its  superb  mechanical  efficiency  has 
greatly  increased  the  wealth  of  the  human  race, 
that  wealth  has  been  so  unequally  divided  that  it 
has  brought  in  its  train  a  whole  retinue  of  agents  that 
work  tirelessly  to  destroy  the  possibilities  of  equal 
opportunity. 

What  does  an  equal  opportunity  for  life  mean? 

First,  it  means  that  children,  unequally  born,  as 
all  children  are,  should  have  an  equal  chance  to  show 
the  true  nature  of  this  inequality.  The  genius, 
whether  he  is  born  in  the  mansion  or  the  hovel,  must 
be  given  full  scope  for  the  development  of  his  genius. 
The  dunderhead,  meanwhile,  will  be  branded  a 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  233 

dunderhead.  Equal  opportunity  for  life  means 
that  all  children  are  to  start  the  race  of  life  from 
scratch. 

Before  there  can  be  equality  hi  life,  the  infant 
mortality  differential  must  be  abolished.  At  the 
present  tune  the  children  of  the  poor  die  many 
times  more  frequently  than  the  children  of  the  rich. 
They  die  because  the  poor  are  poor;  they  die  because 
the  poor  are  ignorant. 

First  of  all,  therefore,  equality  for  life  means  a 
living  wage — a  wage  that  will  provide  the  minimum 
necessities  of  life  for  a  family  of  moderate  size.  In 
a  community  where  it  costs  $850  a  year  to  buy  a 
living,  no  family,  count  its  virtues  as  it  may,  will 
be  able  to  live  on  $500  and  escape  the  penalties  of 
poverty.  That  fact  should  be  luminous,  even  to  the 
socially  blind,  yet  in  every  great  industrial  center 
of  the  United  States,  wages  are  paid  to  many  earnest, 
efficient,  hard-working  men  that  under  no  circum- 
stances could  buy  the  decencies  of  life  for  a  moderate- 
sized  family. 

Industry  retorts  that  it  cannot  discriminate;  that 
it  is  impossible  to  take  into  consideration  the  family 
needs  of  a  man  doing  its  work.  Were  one  wage 
paid  to  single  men  and  a  higher  to  married  men  no 
married  man  could  get  employment  until  all  single 
men  were  employed.  If  all  were  paid  a  family  wage, 
the  unmarried  would  receive  a  wage  far  higher  than 
was  necessary  for  support. 

Suppose  that  argument  holds.    The  answer  to  it 


234  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

is  quite  simple.  If  industry  is  unable  to  pay  living 
wages  to  men  with  families,  the  duty  must  devolve 
upon  the  community  to  see  that  families  are  provided 
with  the  simplest  necessities  of  life.  Motherhood 
pension,  motherhood  endowment — call  it  what  you 
will.  The  family  is  engaged  hi  that  highest  of  all 
human  occupations — the  manufacture  of  souls.  For 
the  future  welfare  of  society  it  is  imperative  that 
these  souls  be  of  the  finest  quality.  If  there  is  one 
case  in  which  state  subsidy  seems  justified,  it  is  in 
case  of  motherhood.  Steamship  lines  and  manu- 
facturing industries  are  important,  but  motherhood 
is  fundamental.  Therefore,  each  mother  must  be 
paid  a  return  hi  proportion  to  the  number  and  age  of 
her  children.  The  state  can  afford  to  do  no  less  for 
the  well-being  of  its  future  citizens. 

Will  not  the  poor,  thereupon,  breed  recklessly  for 
the  sake  of  the  financial  gain?  In  so  far  as  experi- 
ence is  a  valid  guide,  the  result  will  be  exactly  the 
contrary.  Reckless  breeding  occurs,  for  the  most 
part,  only  among  the  very  poor.  The  moment  they 
receive  a  competence,  they  restrict  the  birth  rate. 
A  good  living  for  the  families  of  the  poor  would 
undoubtedly  be  the  largest  single  asset  hi  the  fight 
for  birth  control. 

While  the  difference  between  $10  and  $25  a  week 
makes  a  difference  of  treble  the  infant  death-rate,  it 
is  idle  to  speak  of  equal  rights  to  life.  Before 
there  can  be  equal  rights  for  life  the  ten-dollar  wage 
must  cease,  or  else  all  must  get  it. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  235 

After  the  children  reach  school  age,  there  is  a  very 
ready  means  of  insuring  at  least  a  measure  of  physical 
well-being.  Poverty  reproduces  itself.  If  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor  are  to  be  anything  except  poor,  they 
must  be  fed  and  clothed  sufficiently  to  give  them 
physical  health  and  normal  growth.  That  means 
that  the  school  will  be  called  upon  to  provide  at 
least  one  good  meal  a  day  to  all  of  its  pupils.  To  all, 
because  only  thus  can  the  poor  children  be  relieved 
from  the  stigma  that  goes  with  alms.  All  have  free 
seats  and  free  text-books.  No  one  is  pauperized. 
The  mind  works  ill  on  an  empty  stomach.  Therefore, 
as  an  essential  part  of  its  educational  scheme,  the 
school  must  provide  bread. 

Physically  healthy  children  do  not  grow  out  of 
poverty.  Living  wages,  endowed  motherhood  and 
school  feeding — one  or  perhaps  all  of  these  means 
must  be  resorted  to  for  the  provision  of  equality  hi 
the  physical  basis  of  effective  living. 

Second  only  to  the  necessity  for  equality  in  the 
opportunities  for  physical  life  is  the  necessity  for 
equality  hi  the  opportunities  for  educational  life. 
The  traditions  of  our  education  are  all  against 
equality.  The  nobility  and  the  gentry  among  our 
European  ancestors  were  looked  upon  as  the  legiti- 
mate objects  of  educational  effort.  The  same  thing 
was  not  true  of  the  great  mass  of  mankind  who  were 
born  to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water. 

Here,  in  the  United  States,  the  same  thought 
held  true  in  large  measure,  and  when,  in  the  early 


236  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  an  energetic  cam- 
paign was  waged  for  free  public  education,  the  well- 
to-do  uttered  a  frightened  protest.  "These  people 
would  not  appreciate  an  education;  they  were  not 
fit  for  it.  Besides,  if  they  are  educated  they  will  no 
longer  be  willing  to  work!  The  obvious  thing  was 
to  deny  them  education. 

The  spirit  of  democracy  and  the  exigencies  of  the 
new  and  highly  specialized  industry  both  demanded 
that  opportunity  be  equalized  and  education  be 
provided  for  all.  Thence  grew  the  public  school 
system. 

The  people  who  live  in  the  newer  parts  of  America 
express  their  confidence  in  democracy  by  sending 
their  children  to  public  school,  but  hi  the  large 
eastern  cities  there  are  many  families  that  consider 
their  children  too  good  for  the  public  schools. 
The  result  is  a  large  number  of  private  schools, 
maintained  by  the  well-to-do  for  their  children.  If 
these  private  schools  are  better  than  the  public 
schools,  the  students  in  them  are  given  an  unfair 
advantage  at  the  beginning  of  their  lives.  If  the 
private  schools  are  not  so  good  as  the  public  schools, 
the  children  who  attend  them  are  handicapped.  In 
either  case,  the  private  school  works  against  equality 
of  opportunity.  Whatever  their  intention  or  their 
intrinsic  worth,  most  private  schools  develop  in 
their  pupils  an  idea  that  they  are  "better"  than 
the  public  school  children,  thus  laying  the  basis  for 
a  vicious  system  of  class-conscious  snobbery. 


237 

The  equalization  of  educational  opportunity  would 
seem  to  demand  that  all  children,  of  whatever  status 
in  life,  attend  the  public  schools  and  there  match 
their  talents  against  those  of  the  other  children  in 
the  same  neighborhood.  There  will  still  be  dif- 
ferences between  neighborhoods,  particularly  in  the 
elementary  schools,  yet  the  sending  of  all  children 
to  public  educational  institutions  will  be  a  long  step 
in  the  direction  of  equality  of  opportunity. 

Where  children  have  been  given  an  equal  oppor- 
tunity for  life  in  the  form  of  food  and  clothing,  and 
an  equal  opportunity  for  education  hi  the  form  of  a 
generally  attended  public  school  system,  there  re- 
mains the  necessity  for  establishing  an  equality  of 
opportunity  for  achievement.  That  means  that 
there  must  be  no  endowed  youths  and  maidens  in  the 
community.  At  the  present  tune  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  rich  have  a  start  hi  life  that  enables 
them  to  outstrip  others  who  have  no  greater  abilities. 
It  is  idle  to  contend  that  Rockefeller's  son  and  the 
son  of  a  Colorado  miner  have  equal  opportunity, 
even  though  they  have  equal  ability.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  the  one  is  immeasurably  greater  than  that 
of  the  other.  The  system  of  parental  endowment  of 
untried  youth  is  opposed  to  every  concept  of  democ- 
racy as  equal  opportunity. 

Until  all  of  the  children  hi  the  community  have  an 
equal  opportunity  to  get  a  healthy  start  in  Me,  until 
all  have  like  opportunities  for  education,  and  until 
there  is  an  equalization  of  the  conditions  surround- 


238  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

ing  the  livelihood  struggle,  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  equal- 
ity of  opportunity  for  life.  And  since  equality  of 
opportunity  for  life — physical,  intellectual,  voca- 
tional— is  one  of  the  elemental  ideals  of  democracy, 
democracy  in  any  form  is  impossible  until  this 
equality  is  assured. 

5.    Liberty  as  Opportunity 

Liberty,  to  those  who  love  it,  is  one  of  the  most 
precious  words  in  the  language.  To  those  who  fear 
it,  liberty  is  one  of  the  most  hateful. 

What  is  liberty? 

It  is  opportunity  to  come  and  go,  to  speak,  to 
write,  to  think,  subject  always  to  the  law  of  equal 
liberty,  that  makes  the  liberty  of  each  man  depend 
on  the  manner  in  which  liberty  is  exercised  by  his 
neighbors.  Liberty  is  thus  a  form  of  opportunity 
that  is  not  directly  concerned  with  the  economic 
interests  of  life,  and  yet  it  is  just  where  liberty 
contravenes  economic  interests  that  it  is  most 
seriously  curtailed. 

The  curtailment  of  liberty  that  is  involved  in 
sending  a  man  to  jail  for  having  in  his  possession, 
and  giving  to  a  stranger,  a  pamphlet  on  birth  con- 
trol is  scandalous  in  the  extreme;  yet  it  is  not  of  far- 
reaching  importance,  nor  will  it  result  in  serious 
consequences  to  many  people.  The  prohibition 
which  places  a  heavy  penalty  on  doctors  who  give 
information  regarding  birth  control  is  a  serious  one 
and  one  that  stands  directly  in  the  path  of  progress. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY          239 

If  the  well-to-do  woman  is  to  be  put  in  possession 
of  knowledge  that  will  enable  her  to  regulate  the 
size  of  her  family,  it  would  seem  that  the  poor  woman, 
who  is  under  an  even  greater  necessity  for  family 
limitation,  should  have  an  opportunity  to  secure  the 
same  information.  Indeed,  there  are  people,  not  a 
few,  who  insist  that  the  problem  of  birth  control, 
involving,  as  it  does,  the  only  effective  answer  to 
the  Malthusian  doctrine,  is  of  vital  concern  to  the 
democracy.  Were  fewer  babies  born  into  the 
families  of  the  poor,  there  would  be  fewer  to  die  and 
better  care  for  those  that  did  come ;  yet  it  is  in  those 
families  least  capable  of  caring  for  children  that  the 
highest  birth-rate  is  found. 

Liberty  to  give  information  regarding  any  subject 
about  which  men  have  information  is  an  essential 
factor  hi  democracy.  That  liberty  includes  subjects 
like  birth  control,  which  offend  against  the  moral 
standards  of  the  community.  Three  centuries  ago 
the  curtailment  of  religious  liberty  must  have  been 
discussed  in  the  same  connection.  At  the  present 
tune,  in  the  United  States,  that  question  no  longer 
presents  itself. 

The  real  fight  for  liberty  of  opportunity  at  the 
present  time  centers  about  the  economic  world.  It 
is  there  that  the  next  battle  for  liberty  will  be  lost 
or  won. 

The  leaders  of  the  economic  world  have  learned 
the  importance  of  public  opinion.  Even  if  they 
believe  that  the  public  should  be  damned,  they  no 


240  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

longer  say  so.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  resorting 
to  every  device  to  win  public  opinion  for  their  own. 

The  attitude  is  easily  explained.  During  the 
seventies,  eighties  and  nineties,  when  the  great 
aggregations  of  private  capital  were  being  built  up, 
there  was  no  need  to  worry  about  public  opinion. 
The  public  was  watching,  mouth  agape,  the  sleight- 
of-hand  performances  of  the  wonder-workers,  who 
could  build  a  city  over  night,  with  its  rattling 
machinery  and  roaring  forges.  Later,  when  it  came 
to  paying  the  bill,  the  public  began  to  take  an 
active  hand  hi  business  affairs;  and  now  that  it 
has  become  a  question  as  to  whether  the  people  or 
the  great  corporations  shall  control  the  country,  the 
corporations  are  using  every  device  to  win  public 
opinion,  which  is  the  key  to  the  situation. 

The  channels  of  public  opinion  are  already  well 
in  hand.  The  bar,  the  pulpit,  the  college  chair,  the 
press,  are  all  distinctly  conservative.  That  is, 
content  to  let  well  enough  alone.'  There  are  radical 
and  even  revolutionary  elements  in  all  of  these 
institutions  for  the  shaping  of  public  opinion,  but 
the  tone  of  the  groups  is  conservative.  In  all  of 
them,  at  the  present  time,  the  younger  element  is 
voicing  an  energetic  protest.  In  all  of  them,  the 
conservative  forces  are  bringing  the  most  terrific 
pressure  to  bear  to  keep  the  younger  men  in  line 

During  the  past  few  years  radicalism  seems  to 
have  gained  in  all  directions.  More  frequently, 
pleas  for  justice  are  heard  from  lawyers;  pleas  for 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY          241 

truth  from  ministers  and  teachers.  The  dead 
things  of  the  past  seem  to  be  losing  some  of  their 
power;  the  living  things  of  the  present  and  of  the 
future  seem  to  be  gaming. 

Still  it  remains  true  that  those  who  speak  in 
favor  of  things  as  they  are  "get  space,"  while  those 
who  speak  on  the  other  side  are  tucked  into  a  corner 
or  else  ignored.  The  fight  is  not  yet  won — it  is 
hardly  well  begun. 

The  contest  for  liberty  in  the  industrial  world  is  in 
its  infancy.  The  professional  groups  in  the  popula- 
tion enjoy  a  moderate  degree  of  liberty.  The  wage- 
earners  have  their  liberty  still  to  win.  John  Lawson 
in  Colorado;  Patrick  Quinlan  in  £aterson;  Little 
Falls,  Pittsburgh,  West  Virginia — all  bear  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  coming  of  fierce  conflict. 

The  men  who  wish  to  organize  a  union  are  no  longer 
jailed  for  conspiracy,  but  "the  forces  of  law  and 
order"  are  lined  up  against  them  and  they  are 
hampered  in  every  direction. 

The  most  effective  bribe  is  the  bribe  of  a  job. 
There  is  no  hush  money  like  the  pay  envelope.  At 
the  present  tune  the  surplus  of  labor  is  permitting 
the  employing  world  to  discriminate  harshly  against 
the  man  who  is  organizing  with  his  fellows  into  any 
form  of  labor  organization. 

The  liberty  of  the  employer  to  organize  hi  trade 
bodies  is  commonly  accepted.  The  rights  of  the 
workers  in  the  same  direction  are,  in  many  districts 
and  in  many  trades,  ignored  or  ruthlessly  curtailed. 

18 


242  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

6.     Opportunity  and  Pursuit  of  Happiness 

There  is  no  way  in  which  the  pursuit  of  happiness 
may  be  measured  unless  some  extremely  mate- 
rialistic problem  such  as  livelihood  be  considered. 
And  after  all,  it  remains  true  that  happiness  is 
impossible  in  the  face  of  grinding  poverty  and  is 
almost  as  impossible  in  the  face  of  great  riches. 
Therefore,  while  livelihood  is  by  no  means  a  measure 
or  determiner  of  happiness  except  in  the  most  mate- 
rialistic sense,  it  affords  the  surest  foundation  upon 
which  a  happy  life  may  be  built. 

The  poor  and  the  rich  are  not  equal  if  equality  is 
measured  in  terms  of  infant  death  rates,  of  sickness 
rates,  of  educational  advantages  and  of  opportunities 
to  start  the  race  of  life.  There  is  an  even  broader 
sense  in  which  there  is  gross  inequality  as  between 
poor  and  rich. 

Broadly  speaking — and  this  statement  must  be 
broadly  construed — the  poor  are  the  workers  and 
the  rich  are  the  owners  in  the  Industrial  Regime. 
The  poor  give  the  great  part  of  the  human  service; 
the  rich  control  most  of  the  productive  machinery. 

The  poor  own.  They  own  their  clothing,  their 
kicthen  utensils  and  house  furnishings.  Frequently 
they  own  their  own  houses.  But  hi  the  vast  major- 
ity of  cases  they  do  not  own  stocks,  bonds  or  any 
other  form  of  title  to  the  railroads,  mines,  factories 
and  stores  for  which  they  work.  These  titles  are 
held  by  the  rich. 

Not  all  of  those  who  work  are  poor,  but  the  vast 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY          243 

majority  of  those  who  are  poor  work  for  wages. 
It  is  only  a  vanishingly  small  proportion  of  the  poor 
who  Uve  on  the  community  without  engaging  in 
productive  toil.  The  Johnstown  report  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  where  the  infant  mortality  was 
highest  there  lived  the  "families  of  the  men  who  do 
the  unskilled  work  in  the  steel  mills  and  mines." 
The  poor  are  the  workers,  hi  Johnstown  and 
elsewhere. 

Many  of  the  rich — probably  most  of  the  rich  men 
— are  workers,  but  their  riches  consists,  not  primarily 
in  the  salary  or  returns  for  services,  but  in  the  income 
that  they  derive  for  their  ownership  of  income- 
yielding  property  with  which  the  poor  must  work 
if  they  are  to  live. 

Riches,  hi  so  far  as  it  consists  in  "  establishing 
the  maximum  inequality  hi  our  own  favor,"  is 
diametrically  opposed  to  equality  of  opportunity. 
Riches,  in  this  sense,  is  as  far  from  democracy  as 
the  east  is  from  the  west. 

Moreover,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  rich 
own  the  property  with  which  the  poor  must  work 
for  a  living,  and  that,  in  return  for  this  ownership, 
they  expect  a  return  in  the  form  of  rent  or  interest, 
because  they  are  the  owners,  and  that  the  poor, 
who  work  with  and  live  upon  the  property  of  the 
rich,  must  pay  them  a  return  out  of  the  products 
of  their  work,  it  becomes  apparent  that  the  private 
ownership  of  income-yielding  property  creates  an 
impossible  barrier  of  special  privilege  between  those 


244  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

who  work  and  those  who  own  the  property  on  which 
the  work  is  done.  Unless  all  are  owners,  those 
who  own  may  and  do  exact  a  tribute  from  those  who 
work,  so  that  the  harder  the  worker  works  and  the 
more  product  he  turns  out,  the  greater  is  the  return  to 
the  property  owner  and  the  wider  is  the  gulf  between 
the  opportunities  of  him  who  works  and  him  who  owns. 

Those  who  own  income-yielding  property  that  is 
the  product  of  their  own  accumulation  and  who  may 
therefore  live  upon  the  income  from  this  property 
without  themselves  doing  any  work,  hold  a  means  of 
enforcing  inequality  as  between  themselves  and  the 
workers.  Those  who  inherit  income-yielding  prop- 
erty start  the  race  of  life  with  an  assured  livelihood, 
while  the  children  of  the  workers  must  produce 
sufficient  wealth  to  provide  for  their  own  necessities 
and  to  pay  the  interest  and  dividends  on  the  prop- 
erty held  by  the  sons  of  the  rich.  Thus  the  workers, 
in  the  race  of  life,  must  run  their  own  race,  carrying, 
meanwhile,  the  property  owners  who  need  do  no 
work.  Among  these  workers  are  many  poor  upon 
whose  backs  sit  the  few  rich. 

There  is  a  forceful  statement  of  the  contrast  in 
Ruskin's  "Unto  This  Last."  "It  has  long  been 
known  and  declared  that  the  poor  have  no  right  to 
the  property  of  the  rich.  I  wish  it  also  to  be  known 
and  declared  that  the  rich  have  no  right  to  the 
property  of  the  poor."  While  the  poor,  who  work 
for  a  living,  are  compelled  to  support  the  rich  who 
own  for  a  living,  it  is  idle  to  talk  about  equal 


opportunity  for  livelihood.  The  opportunities 
for  livelihood  are  in  their  very  nature  unequal 
and  must  inevitably  remain  so  as  long  as  a  part 
of  the  people  are  permitted  to  hold  titles  and  draw 
income  from  income-yielding  property  with  which 
the  poor  must  work  for  a  living. 

7.     Workers  and  Eaters 

The  argument  with  which  the  preceding  section 
concluded  has  an  immediate  bearing  upon  the  next 
fundamental  proposition  of  democracy:  "He  that 
will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat."  Enough  has 
already  been  said  about  the  relative  status  of  workers 
and  owners  in  the  United  States.  It  is  necessary, 
at  this  point,  to  emphasize  the  thought  that  all  who 
share  in  the  benefits  of  social  activity  should  also 
share  in  its  burdens. 

John  Smith  and  his  followers  had  fled  from  a 
system  of  economic  organization  under  which  those 
who  owned  the  land  fared  sumptuously  upon  the 
rents  paid  to  them  by  those  who  worked  the  land. 
The  feudal  system  gave  the  land  to  a  landed  class, 
and  by  that  fact  put  into  the  possession  of  the  landed 
class  the  power  to  exact  a  rent  from  all  who  wished 
to  use  the  land.  The  land  owners,  generation  after 
generation,  lived  without  working,  upon  the  income 
yielded  by  their  land. 

Revolting  against  this  form  of  economic  parasitism, 
John  Smith  uttered  his  protest:  "He  that  will  not 
work,  neither  shall  he  eat."  The  welfare  of  the  com- 


246  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

munity  seemed  to  require  that  those  who  share 
benefits  also  share  burdens. 

The  special  privilege  inherent  hi  all  forms  of 
income-yielding  property  contravenes  this  funda- 
mental democratic  principle.  With  the  amount  of 
income-yielding  property  limited,  and  with  the 
necessity  that  those  who  earn  their  livelihood  by 
working  with  this  property  shall  pay  those  who  own 
it  for  the  privilege  of  using,  it  becomes  certain  that 
the  private  ownership  of  income-yielding  property 
will  create  a  parasitic  class  that  will  be  able  to  eat 
without  doing  any  work. 

The  extent  to  which  this  is  already  done  is  aston- 
ishing. To  take  only  one  of  the  many  forms  of 
income-yielding  property — corporate  stocks  and 
bonds — the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue  reports  that  the  corporations  required  by 
law  to  pay  the  Federal  revenue  tax  had  (1913) 
total  bonds  of  $34,750,000,000  and  total  stocks  of 
$61,738,000,000.  Together  these  corporation  secu- 
rities amount  to  almost  a  hundred  billions.  If  they 
pay  an  average  interest  of  five  per  cent  and  an 
average  dividend  of  four  per  cent,  they  yield  about 
four  and  a  quarter  billions  of  dollars  in  annual 
revenue  to  their  owners.  If  to  these  income-yielding 
property  titles  are  added  the  mortgages,  the  rented 
city  real  estate,  the  farms  on  lease,  the  property 
returns  from  unincorporated  businesses  and  the 
income  on  public  debt,  some  idea  may  be  secured 
of  the  present  possibilities  before  those  people  who 
wish  to  live  on  their  incomes. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  247 

One  frequently  hears  the  attitude  of  the  wage- 
earner  decried.  He  soldiers.  He  does  not  deliver 
a  fair  day's  work.  Such  critics  would  be  vehement 
indeed  if  the  wage-earner  proposed  to  get  his  pay 
without  doing  any  work.  Yet  this  is  exactly  the 
proposition  that  the  owners  of  income-yielding 
property  are  demonstrating  every  day  that  they 
live  on  their  ownership.  There  is  probably  no  force 
more  utterly  demoralizing  than  the  efforts  of  a 
part  of  the  population  to  live,  without  working, 
upon  the  labor  of  another  part.  Despite  this  quite 
obvious  fact,  the  United  States  is  today  engaged  in 
building  up  an  economic  system  that  guarantees  a 
far  better  living  to  the  rich  loafer  than  it  pays  to 
the  honest  worker. 

8.    A  People's  Government 

The  government  of  the  United  States  is  a  people's 
government.  That  is,  it  is  organized  on  the  general 
democratic  proposition  of  the  greatest  good  to  the 
greatest  number.  The  greatest  number  of  the 
American  people  are  wage-earners  or  lease-holders, 
who  are  using  the  property  of  others  in  the  gaming 
of  a  livelihood.  The  American  government,  in 
order  to  be  democratic,  must  apply  this  principle 
to  the  industrial  world. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  quite  apparent,  with- 
out any  argument,  that  industry  is  utterly  un- 
democratic in  its  present  organization. 

Democracy  presupposes  control  by  the  people 


248  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

the  majority  of  the  people.  As  it  has  been  worked 
out  in  modern  society,  it  means  the  selection,  by 
the  people,  of  representatives  who  act  for  their 
constituency.  This  type  of  representative  democ- 
racy has  been  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  in  poli- 
tics. Industry,  meanwhile,  is  under  the  almost 
complete  control  of  a  non-representative  and  non- 
responsible  plutocracy. 

With  the  exception  of  a  very  mild  form  of  regula- 
tion exercised  by  state  and  Federal  government 
over  certain  of  the  more  important  public  utilities, 
those  who  own  the  industries  control  them  as 
absolutely  as  the  owner  of  a  dukedom  in  medieval 
Germany  controlled  his  estate.  The  modern  wage- 
earners  are  not  attached  to  the  industry  as  the 
medieval  serfs  were  attached  to  the  land,  but  while 
they  continue  to  wrork  in  an  industry  they  are 
subject  to  the  dictates  of  the  owners  of  the  industry. 

The  corporation  is  the  clearest  type  of  this  rela- 
tion between  ownership  and  industrial  control. 
The  stockholder — the  owners  of  the  corporation- 
select  a  board  of  directors  whose  duty  it  is  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  property.  The  directors,  in  turn, 
designate  certain  administrative  officers  who  carry 
on  the  active  business  of  management.  Not  once 
are  the  workers  consulted  regarding  any  matter  of 
industrial  policy.  They  have  no  say,  either  in  the 
selection  of  the  officials  or  in  the  determination  of  the 
things  that  are  to  be  done  by  the  officials.  The 
workers  in  a  modern  industry  are  just  as  far  from 


249 

having  a  say  in  industrial  affairs  as  were  the  serfs 
of  medieval  Europe  from  participating  in  the  affairs 
of  the  estates  on  which  they  worked. 

It  seems  almost  idle  to  reiterate  such  statements. 
They  are  so  obvious.  No  worker  supposes  that  he 
has  a  say  in  business  policy.  No  owner  of  business 
property  pretends  that  the  workers  have  a  say  in 
business  policy.  At  the  same  time  most  people  fail 
to  realize  the  absolute  negation  of  democracy  that 
is  involved  in  the  present-day  system  of  industrial 
organization. 

Industry  is  not  only  undemocratic  in  its  internal 
organization,  but  it  has  actually  presumed  to  reach 
out  and  lay  its  hands  on  the  political  government  for 
the  furthering  of  its  own  interests.  Thinking 
people  cannot  listen  with  anything  short  of  alarm 
while  the  President  speaks  to  Congress  of  the  possi- 
bility that  employers  will  allow  the  young  men  in 
their  employ  to  take  a  few  months  for  military 
training,  saying,  "I,  for  one,  do  not  doubt  the 
patriotic  devotion  either  of  our  young  men  or  of  those 
who  give  them  employment — those  for  whose  bene- 
fit and  protection  they  would  enlist."2  It  may  be 
news  to  many  people  in  the  country  that  military 
preparedness  is  for  the  benefit  and  protection  of  the 
employing  class,  yet  the  President  makes  the  point 
quite  frankly. 

To  those  who  have  followed  the  recent  con- 
troversies between  labor  and  capital,  it  is  no  news 

8  Message  of  December  7,  1915. 


250  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

that  the  power  of  government  has  been  used  almost 
universally  on  the  side  of  capital  and  against  labor. 
Shortly  after  the  recent  outbreak  in  Colorado,  the 
Governor  (Ammons)  wrote  an  article  for  the  North 
American  Review  in  which  he  discussed  the  whole 
situation.  When  the  Governor  referred  to  " rights" 
he  meant  the  rights  of  property;  when  he  referred 
to  " wrongs,"  he  meant  wrongs  against  property. 
In  the  subsequent  testimony  it  was  clearly  brought 
out  that  certain  of  the  mining  companies  had  been 
for  years  deliberately  violating  the  state  mining 
laws.  As  a  result  of  these  violations,  the  lives  of 
the  miners  were  jeopardized.  When  these  matters 
were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Governor,  he 
made  no  outcry  against  " wrongs"  and  in  favor  of 
11  rights."  He  sent  no  militia  to  place  the  mine 
company  officials  under  arrest  until  the  conditions 
were  remedied.  The  safety  and  even  the  life  of  the 
miners  was  endangered;  the  state  took  no  action, 
but  the  moment  that  the  property  of  the  operators 
was  threatened  the  officials  acted. 

The  same  thing  held  true  in  West  Virginia. 
Frightful  explosions,  resulting  from  deliberate  neglect 
of  official  warnings,  cost  scores  of  lives  without 
causing  more  than  a  ripple  in  officialdom.  The 
moment  the  property  of  mine  owners  was  threat- 
ened, the  militia  was  called  out,  martial  law  was 
declared  and  the  military  courts  railroaded  cases 
that  might  have  been  as  readily  disposed  of  by  civil 
procedure. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  251 

Illustrations  might  be  multiplied  of  the  manner 
hi  which  the  owners  of  industry  have  succeeded  hi 
establishing  a  control  over  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment. Their  contributions  to  campaign  funds,  their 
manipulation  of  party  machinery;  their  dictation  of 
nominations  and  appointments;  their  success  in 
securing  the  legislation  they  desire  and  in  killing 
that  to  which  they  are  opposed — hi  these  and  other 
directions  industry  has  manifested  its  power  over 
politics.  The  democracy  and  the  plutocracy  are 
at  war  and  the  democracy  is  fighting  for  its  life. 

Indeed,  it  is  becoming  increasingly  apparent  that 
a  modern  nation  cannot  exist  part  democratic  and 
part  plutocratic.  The  interests  of  the  democracy  and 
those  of  the  plutocracy  are  directly  opposed  to  one 
another.  The  democracy  asks  for  the  control  of  the 
larger  affairs  of  public  life.  The  plutocracy  con- 
fidently expects  to  exercise  the  same  control. 

The  plutocracy  bases  its  power  on  some  form  of 
special  privilege.  The  democracy  stands  for  equality 
of  opportunity.  Special  privilege  is  to  democracy  as 
the  east  is  to  the  west.  They  cannot  exist  together. 
If  special  privilege  is  to  dominate,  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity must  be  denied.  If  equal  opportunity  is  to 
be  the  rule  of  the  community,  special  privilege 
must  go. 

The  struggle  between  plutocracy  and  democracy  is 
a  struggle  for  life  and  death.  One  must  survive, 
the  other  must  be  destroyed.  Perhaps  the  matter 
is  best  illustrated  in  its  relation  to  the  very  important 
question  of  taxation. 


252  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

9.     Taxation  and  Representation 

The  problem  of  taxation  has  been  one  of  pressing 
importance  to  the  democracy  for  many  centuries. 
In  England  a  long  struggle  was  waged  before  the 
Commons  won  the  right  to  levy  taxes  and  to  direct 
the  expenditure  of  public  money.  It  was  not  until 
the  twentieth  century  that  the  House  of  Lords 
officially  relinquished  the  right  to  dictate  in  regard 
to  the  taxing  power. 

The  taxing  power  is  one  of  the  most  important  of 
all  governmental  functions.  It  is  the  source  of 
public  revenue.  It  includes  the  power  to  destroy 
the  object  of  taxation. 

In  its  original  form,  taxation  was  a  tribute  levied 
on  the  conquered  by  the  conquerer.  The  tax- 
gatherer,  the  worst  hated  of  all  men,  followed  the 
rule,  "Get  all  you  can."  Consequently  the  taxation 
was  another  name  for  tyranny. 

The  evolution  of  democratic  government  has 
carried,  as  a  necessary  accompaniment,  the  exercise 
of  the  taxing  power.  The  tax-gatherer  is  no  longer 
a  hated  official.  Of  old  he  levied  on  the  weak  and 
gave  to  the  strong.  The  rich  lived  in  luxury  because 
the  tax-gatherer  squeezed  the  poor  dry.  Today  the 
taxes  that  are  raised  by  public  levy  are  spent  for 
public  purposes — high  schools,  roads,  public  buildings 
and  the  like.  Taxation  and  tyranny  are  no  longer 
synonymous,  because  the  people  decide,  through  their 
representatives,  what  disposition  shall  be  made  of  the 
money  raised  by  taxation. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  253 

Today,  as  of  old,  taxation  without  representation 
is  tyranny,  and  taxation  without  representation  is 
the  rule  of  the  plutocracy. 

The  plutocracy  today  levies  on  the  public  as  the 
landed  aristocracy  once  levied  on  its  public.  Then 
the  levy  was  made  through  the  control  of  the  land 
and  of  the  machinery  of  government.  Today  it  is 
made  through  the  control  of  the  natural  resources 
and  the  machinery  of  transportation  and  finance. 

The  new  taxing  power  is  called  "  Monopoly 
power."  It  includes  the  right  to  levy  on  all  who  are 
subject  to  its  control,  "all  that  the  traffic  will  bear." 
That  phrase  means  "get  all  you  can."  It  is  the 
watchword  of  the  tax-gatherer  of  old  in  a  new 
setting  and  a  new  land,  but  it  is  the  same  watchword. 
The  great  aggregations  of  capital,  exercising  their 
monopoly  power  today,  occupy  exactly  the  same 
position  that  was  occupied  by  the  landed  aristocracy 
of  old.  They  collect  taxes  and  get  all  they  can. 

Taxation  without  representation  is  still  tyranny. 
The  people  in  the  exercise  of  their  democratic  powers 
are  the  only  legitimate  power  to  levy  taxes;  yet 
today  the  tax  levied  upon  the  people  of  the  United 
States  by  those  who  hold  income-yielding  property 
is  probably  greater  hi  the  aggregate  than  the 
total  amount  levied  by  local,  state  and  national 
government. 

10.     The  Man  Above  the  Dollar 

The  phrase  "put  the  man  above  the  dollar" 
describes  the  results  that  might  be  expected  to  flow 


254  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

from  the  operations  of  a  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  The  saying 
finds  its  modern  application  in  the  contest  between 
property  rights  and  human  rights. 

The  people  of  a  democracy  who,  like  other  people, 
hold  their  lives  dearer  than  their  property,  might  be 
expected  to  give  the  first  consideration  tohuman  well- 
being  and  to  consider  the  well-being  of  property  as 
a  matter  of  secondary  importance.  Feudal  Europe 
had  passed  through  a  long  experience  during  which 
property  was  considered  before  people — that  is,  the 
property  of  the  governing  group  was  considered 
before  the  well-being  of  the  masses.  Democracy 
was  to  remedy  this  glaring  inhumanity  by  looking  out 
for  the  well-being  of  people  in  whatever  class  they 
might  be  found,  before  the  property  of  any  par- 
ticular group  was  considered. 

This  common  humanity  of  man  to  man  was  to 
be  an  essential  feature  of  the  new  democratic  stand- 
ard that  society  would  set  up.  Of  necessity  it  would 
replace  the  old  standards  which  regarded  man 
first  as  property,  if  he  could  be  enslaved;  later  as 
attached  to  the  land  on  which  he  worked;  and  still 
later,  in  the  present  era,  as  being  of  less  importance 
to  the  world  than  capital.  Ruskin  voices  the  ideal 
when  he  urges  society  to  devote  its  energy  to  the 
production  of  happy  and  noble  men  and  women. 
From  his  point  of  view,  wealth  is  life,  with  all  of  its 
boundless  possibilities. 

Putting  the  man  above  the  dollar  as  an  element 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY          255 

in  industrial  democracy  has  a  very  definite  meaning. 
Fenderless  or  poorly  Tendered  street  cars  that  grind 
people  under  the  wheels  because  it  is  cheaper  to  pay 
accident  claims  than  it  is  to  equip  the  cars  with 
adequate  fenders;  coal  mines  in  which  gas  and  dust 
accumulating  through  lack  of  proper  precautions 
lead  to  disastrous  explosions;  railroads,  operating 
with  improper  equipment  because  proper  equip- 
ment costs  money;  factories  unprovided  with  suffi- 
cient fire  escapes,  hi  which  men  and  women  are 
burned  to  death;  children  turned  in  to  work  at  an 
early  age  because  they  are  cheap  and  profitable; 
unprotected  workers  in  dangerous  trades — all  of 
these  and  many  other  instances  are  the  essential 
elements  of  an  economic  system  that  puts  the 
dollar  before  the  man — profits  before  people. 

While  business  is  run  for  profits,  the  winning  of 
profits  will  be  the  chief  task  of  the  man  of  affairs. 
Profits  are  cash  profits,  measured  in  dollars  and 
not  in  human  well-being.  Therefore,  as  long  as 
industry  is  run  for  profit,  the  dollar  will  be  put 
above  the  man. 

Grant  the  truth  of  this  assertion  and  it  becomes 
apparent  that  there  is  a  fundamental  conflict  between 
this  principle  of  democracy  and  the  present  system 
of  industry  for  profit.  So  long  as  industry  is  run 
for  profit  primarily,  it  cannot  be  run  primarily  for 
service.  Until  industry  is  run  for  the  service  of  the 
great  body  of  people,  it  cannot  be  democratic. 
Industry  for  profit  and  democracy  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  one  another. 


256  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

Putting  the  man  above  the  dollar  means  running 
industry  for  people,  not  profits.  Under  such  an 
industrial  order,  as  in  the  family,  human  well-being 
will  always  come  before  property. 

The  problem  of  industrial  democracy  has  been 
approached  from  four  points  of  view:  (1)  equality 
of  opportunity;  (2)  obligation  to  serve  the  com- 
munity; (3)  the  need  of  a  government  that  will 
represent  the  people;  and  (4)  the  necessity  for  con- 
sidering human  welfare  as  more  important  than 
property  welfare.  These  principles  of  democracy 
must  be  applied  to  industry  if  industrial  democracy 
is  to  be  established.  The  analysis  has  suggested 
that  the  present  system  of  wealth  distribution;  the 
gulf  between  those  who  work  and  those  who  own; 
economic  parasitism,  with  its  complement  of  exploi- 
tation; and  industry  for  profit  are,  in  their  very 
nature,  opposed  to  industrial  democracy.  If  this 
is  true,  then  industrial  democracy  will  never  be  a 
reality  while  industry  for  profit  remains. 


INDEX 


American    colonists,    spirit    of, 

131 
American  education,  formalism 

in,  151 
American    leadership,    tradition 

of,  129 

American  wage,  anti-social  na- 
ture of,  121 
diagram  of,  105 
social  implications  of,  119 
summary  of,  101 
Americanism,   meaning  of,   129 

Bread  making  and  machinery, 

53 
Business  accounts,  and  wages, 

114 

method  in,  115,  116 
Business  control,  steps  toward, 

59 

Causes,  importance  of.  in  fight- 
ing poverty,  187 

Child  labor,  English  factories, 
16 

Child  nutrition  and  poverty,  173 

Child  poverty,  172 

City  life,  and  deterioration,  37 

Clothing  and  wage  adequacy, 
110 

Community  individualism,  10 

Crime  and  poverty,  175 


Death   rates,    and   poverty,    in 

Great  Britain,  182 
Democracy,   and   special  privi- 
lege, 90 

and  the  public  school,  236 
effectiveness  of,  42 
greatest  number,  90 

17  (257) 


Democracy,  ideals  of,  228 
in  American  industry,  249 
people's  government  as,  247 

Democratic  ideals,  and  the  in- 
dustrial regime,  230 

Disease  and  poverty,  177 

Dives  and  Lazarus,  184 
relation  between,  186 

Earnings,   yearly,   estimate  of, 

104 

Education  as  opportunity,  236 
Efficiency,  and  empire,  40 
and  wage  adequacy,  97 
English    individualism,    nature 

of,  11 
Equal   opportunity,   denial   of, 

157 

meaning  of,  232 
Equal  rights,  as  a  democratic 

ideal,  229 

Exploitation,  and  national  great- 
ness, 21 

and  poverty,  192 
basis  for,  69 
Carlyle  on,  26 
Dickens  on,  27 
early  factory  system,  18 
results  of,  in  England,  32 
Ruskin  on,  25 


Factory  acts,  in  England,  21 
Factory  growth,  results  of,  20 
Factory  system,   abuses  of,  in 

England,  17 
and  laissez-faire,  16 
Factory   work  and  the  home, 

58 
Family  accounting  as  a  business, 

118 


258 


INDEX 


Family  wage,  need  of,  100 
social  guarantee  of,  234 
Financial  interests,  power  of,  61 
Freedom  of  contract,  state  of, 

in  English  industry,  18 
Freedom    of    opportunity    and 

leadership,  158 

Great  War,  as  a  test  of  social 
values,  9 

Higher  education,  ~  and  leader- 
ship, 154 

Human  rights  and  property 
rights,  254 

Humanity,  and  the  machine,  50 

Ideals,  of  democracy,  228 
Ignorance,  menace  of,  30 
Individual  liberty,  dogma  of,  22 
Individualism,  and  biology,  10 

and  the  family,  10 

conflict  of,  with  liberty,  41 

ideal  of,  14 

in  England,  12 

in  English  industry,  16 

meaning  of,  10 

results  in  England,  14 
Industrial  activity,  strain  of,  66 

routine  of,  68 

Industrial    control,     concentra- 
tion of,  58 
Industrial  leaders,   position   of, 

139 

Industrial  leadership,  class  con- 
sciousness of,  140 

standards  of,  140 
Industrial   liberty,   contest   for. 

241 
Industrial   organization,   in   the 

steel  industry,  60 
Industrial  regime,  abuses  of,  in 
England,  19 

and  democratic  ideals,  230 

growth  of,  13 

opportunity  under  the,  137 

significance  of,  13 

social  nature  of,  11 

undemocracy  of,  231 


Industrial  revolution,  56 

Industrial   slavery,   menace   of, 
82 

Industrial  subordinates,  position 
of,  143 

Industrial  virtues,  category  of, 
145 

Industrialism  and  exploitation, 
70 

Industry,  and  training  for  leader- 
ship, 148 

'.    distribution  of  occupations  in, 

136 

need  of  leadership,  125 
wages  in,  102 

Inequality,  through  riches,  226 

Infant  deaths,  and  poverty,  Fall 

River,  180 
in  Johnstown,  178 

Instinct    of    workmanship,    im- 
portance of,  79 

Intellectual     individualism,     in 

England,  12 
nature  of,  11,  12 

Kingdom  of  man,  and  the  tool, 
45 

Labor,  penalty  of,  122 
Laissez-faire,  Carlyle  on,  26 

defense  of,  23 

doctrine  of,  15 

in  English  industry,  15 

Ruskin  on,  25 

Leadership,     and     opportunity, 
156 

and    the    property    interests, 
141 

and  the  schools,  150 

and  the  system,  142 

call  for,  124 

duties  of,  132 

inspiration  for,  153 

methods  of  securing,  146 

need  of,  124 

opportunities  for,  125,  134 

picking  men  for,  126 

qualities  of,  127 

through  education,  149 


INDEX 


259 


Leisure,   as  a  product  of  ma- 
chinery. 51 
Liberty,  and  democracy,  239 

as  opportunity,  238 
Life,  as  a  measure  of  wealth,  31 
Livelihood,  measure  of,  108 
Living  wage,  and  equal  oppor- 
tunity, 233 

Long  day,  persistence  of,  72,  73 
Low  wages,  and  poverty,   168, 
179 

Machine,  characteristics  of,  48 

possibilities  of  the,  49 

social  nature  of,  69 
Machine-tending,  vices  of,  65 
Machine  tenders,  man  as,  64 
Machinery,  and  the  future,  86 

advantage  of,  55 

and  bread-making,  52 

and  human  energy,  54 

as  a  human  asset,  50 

fruits  of,  51 

supplants  the  tool,  47 
Man,  as  tool  maker,  45 

importance  of  tools  to,  45 
Manufacturing,  wage-earners  in, 

57 

Material  and  spiritual  values,  89 
Measure  of  worth,  92 
Minimum  wage,  for  women,  108 
Monopoly    power    and    democ- 
racy, 252 

New  feudalism,  menace  of,  138 
New  York,  poverty  in,  168 
Night  work,  growth  of,  74 
Nutrition  and  wage  adequacy, 
110 

Occupations,  distribution  of,  in 

America,  135 
Opportunity,    as   a   democratic 

ideal,  229 
denial  of,  155 
equality  of,  232 
for  happiness,  242 
through  education,  237 
Ownership,  and  the  machine,  85 


Ownership,  as  worth,  94 
income,  202 
income  from,  85 

Parasitism,  and  worth,  94 
economic,     in     the     United 

States,  84 
Pauperization,    through    riches, 

210 

Philanthropy,  and  charity,  213 
and  riches,  212 
failure  of,  212 
Physical  deterioration,  England 

reports  on,  34,  35 
produced  bv  exploitation,  34, 

35 
Physical  efficiency,  as  a  measure 

of  poverty,  156 

Physical  health,  as  equal  oppor- 
tunity, 235 

Physical  standard,  England,  35 
Political  economy,   measure   of 

prosperity,  24 

Popular  government,  as  a  demo- 
cratic ideal,  230 
Poverty,  a  social  crime,  193 
and  child  nutrition,  173 
and  comfort,  185 
and  disease,  177 
and  exploitation,  192 
and  infant  deaths,  178 
and  infant  deaths,  Johnstown, 

178 

and  personal  vices,  190 
and  physical  standard,  34,  35 
and  progress,  161 
and  riches;  161 
and  typhoid  in  Pittsburgh,  181 
as  a  phase  of  the  wage  ques- 
tion, 189 

as  a  school  of  virtue,  166 
burden  of,  172 
challenge  of,  163,  194 
crime  as  a  source  of,  175 
definition  of,  163 
effect  of,  on  English  recruit- 
ing, 34 

frightf ulness  of,  167 
Galsworthy  on,  174 


260 


INDEX 


Poverty,  low  wages  as  a  cause 

of,  190 
menace  of,  30 
persistence  of,  162 
profit  from,  196 
significance  of,  183 
social  causes  of,  189 
the  basis  for  riches,  194 
the  "Why"  of,  187 
trail  of,  165 
Preparedness,      importance     of 

real,  40,  41 
Professions,    leadership   in   the, 

133 

Property  income,  right  to,  203 
Property     rights     and     human 

rights,  255 
Prosperity,      analysis     of,     by 

Dickens,  27,  28 
and  exploitation,  32 
English  idea  of,  24 
Prostitution,  and  poverty,  176 
Public  opinion,  fight  for,  239 

importance  of,  159 
Public  school,  and  democracy 
236 

Race    deterioration,    evidences 

of,  34 

Railroads,  distribution  of  occu- 
pations on,  136 
Recruiting,  in  England,  figures 

of,  33 
Reform    voice    of,    nineteenth 

century,  England,  25 
Riches,  and  inequality,  226 
and  self-respect,  209 
as  a  bar  to  personal  relation- 
ships, 215 
as  power,  226 
as  special  privilege,  224 
danger  of,  219 
definition  of,  222 
immorality  of,  224 
increase  of  wealth,  62 
isolation  through,  211 
leads  to  dependence,  208 
pauperizing  power  of,  210 
relativity  of,  222 


Riches,  results  of,  207 

revolt  against,  219 
Room  at  the  top,  realities  of, 
135 

School    children,    deterioration 
of,  38 

School  feeding,  and  poverty,  173 

Schools,  and  leadership,  150 

Self-respect,  and  riches,  209 
and  wage  adequacy,  97 

Service,  as  a  test  of  worth,  92 

Slavery,  menace  of,  in  industry, 
82,  83 

Social    dependence,    and    wage 
adequacy,  97 

Social  legislation,  beginnings  of, 
22 

Social  science,  message  of,  42 

Social    self -support,    and   wage 
adequacy   98 

Special  privilege,  the  foe  of  de- 
mocracy, 246 

Spending,  as  a  means  to  pros- 
perity, 217 
as  philanthropy,  215 

Spiritual  values,  place  of,  81 

Standard  of  living,  and  income, 

113 
cost  of,  112 

Starvation,  as  a  measure  of  pov- 
erty, 164 
immorality  of,  in  America,  164 

Statesmanship  and  prosperity,  28 

Steel  industry,   working  condi- 
tions, 71,  77 

Steel   making,    without   human 
energy,  54 

Subsistence,    as    a    measure   of 
poverty,  164 

Subway  workers,  poverty  among, 
168 

Taxation,  and  democracy,  253 

Theory,  test  of,  1 

Tool  power,  46 

Tools,  importance  of  ownership, 

46 
Town-dwelling,  effects  of,  37 


INDEX 


*261 


Unemployment,  as  a  cause  of 
poverty,  191 

United  States,  need  of  leader- 
ship in,  128 

Vice  and  poverty,  175 

Wage  adequacy,  measure  of,  96, 

97 

Wage  question  and  poverty,  189 
Wages,  adequacy  of,  95 
Wages,  and  unemployment,  103 
as  a  business  proposition,  114 
livelihoodj  adequacy  of,  106 
low,  and  infant  deaths,  179 
in  the  United  States,  101 
Wage-rates,    in    Massachusetts, 

102 
Want  and  wealth  in  the  United 

States,  199 
Wealth,  and  the  machine,  52 


Wealth,  and  the  wealthy,  207 
growth     of,    in    the     United 
States,  62 

Wealth  machine,   character  of, 
201 

Women,  wages  of,  107 

Work  as  worth,  93 

Work  income,  202 

Work,  income  from,  85 

Worker,  and  product,  78 

Worker  and  product,  separation 
of,  80 

Workers  and  eaters,  245 

Working    conditions,    steel    in- 
dustry, 77 

Worth,  in  relation  to  life,  93 

Worth,  measure  of,  91 

Yearly  earnings,  estimate  of,  104 
Yeomanry,  place  in  English  life, 
24 


*  Text  pages  261  +  32  pages  for  illustrations  =293  total  pages. 


8538 


Nov 


F 


GAYLORD 


DATE  DUE 


1? 


PRINTED  IN  US 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  634  833     8 


